WASHINGTON/brussels: A second Texas healthcare worker has tested positive for Ebola after treating a Liberian patient who died of the virus in Dallas, officials said yesterday.
The woman’s identity was not revealed by health authorities, who said she came down with a fever on Tuesday and was isolated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
A test to confirm the presence of the virus is being done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This is a heroic person, a person who has dedicated her life to helping others,” said Judge Clay Jenkins.
The case follows the diagnosis Sunday of nurse Nina Pham, who had been closely involved in the care of Thomas Eric Duncan between September 28 and October 8, when he died.
The Texas Department of State Health Services is monitoring 75 more health care workers who may have become infected while caring for Duncan or handling his blood specimens at the Dallas hospital.
“It may get worse before it gets better, but it will get better,” Mayor Mike Rawlings told a press conference. The latest patient lived alone and had no pets. People in the apartment complex where she lived were notified that one of their neighbors had come down with Ebola, Rawlings said.
Duncan is thought to have contracted the disease while still in Liberia. He was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States -- and the first case diagnosed outside Africa.
Pham was the first person to contract Ebola in the United States. She was described as being in “good condition” by the hospital on Tuesday, and she released a statement saying she was “doing well.”
European health ministers will consider screening travellers for the Ebola virus at airports across the EU when they meet in Brussels today.
Britain has already introduced entry screening as public concern has mounted about the spread of the disease from West Africa and the other 27 EU states could follow suit, an EU official said yesterday — although governments are free to set their own guidelines on health and medical issues.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, says it is still weighing up the effectiveness of entry screening, given that travellers are screened on departure from the affected areas and have a low probability of developing infectious symptoms between leaving an African airport and arriving in Europe.
The EU official said one key element of entry screening could be informing arriving passengers of what to do if they later fell ill — notably telling them not to turn up without warning at hospital after developing symptoms of Ebola.
Canada has supplied small amounts of an experimental Ebola treatment to Spain and Norway to treat infected healthcare workers, the Public Health Agency of Canada said yesterday.
The agency’s National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba transferred the treatment ZMAb to Spain in September and to Norway this month, at the request of the countries, spokesman Robert Cyrenne said. The treatment is laboratory grade, meaning it was made for use on animals.
A nurse remained seriously ill this week after catching the virus in Madrid while caring for infected patients. A Norwegian healthcare worker working for Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone was infected and brought home for treatment, the organization said last week.
At least 4,447 people have died in West Africa in the worst Ebola outbreak on record. ZMAb is a monoclonal antibody treatment designed to find, attach and coat the Ebola virus, preventing it from multiplying within the body.
The treatment is a precursor to ZMapp, which Canada licensed to California-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. ZMapp was used this summer to treat two American aid workers, who recovered.
Another experimental drug developed in Canada by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp was used last month on an infected US medical missionary, who also recovered.
Agencies
