From Guinea, a country of 11 million
people, the Ebola Virus Disease has spread to four other West African
nations – Senegal, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leaone – killing more
than 3,000 people in a matter of days. The latest destination is Dallas,
a major city in Texas, United States, where the first person diagnosed
in the country has been quarantined alongside 80 other possible
contacts.
Until September 17 when President
Barrack Obama sent 3,000 troops to help with the transportation of
medical equipments, the US been sitting on the sidelines.
Speaking at the US Centre for Disease
Control, Atlanta, Obama announced a comprehensive plan, which involves
the construction of 17 treatment centres with 100 bed facilities each.
Some 500 health care workers will also be trained weekly.
“Faced with this outbreak, the world is
looking to us, the United States, and it is a responsibility that we
embrace. We are prepared to take leadership on this, to provide the type
of capabilities that only America has and mobilize our resources in
ways that only America can do,’’ Obama had said.
However, Duncan’s trip to the US has
thrown up several issues. First is the inability of officials at the
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to isolate Duncan on September 26,
the day he first reported to the hospital.
Reacting to the development, a
Consultant Gynecologist, Dr. Rotimi Akinola expressed hope that the
situation would be brought under control soon. He however, remarked that
the failure to isolate Duncan on his first visit to the hospital shows a
natural weakness in any human system.
“There is no human system anywhere in
the world that is above mistake. But they have an effective contract
tracing mechanism and better record keeping. I am sure that system will
rise to the occasion,’’ he enthused.
Texas hospital explains
A nurse at the Texas hospital was said
to have asked Duncan about his recent travels while he was in the
emergency room, and the patient was said to have told the nurse that he
had been in Africa.
Executive Vice President of Texas Health
Resources, Dr. Mark Lester confirmed this but that the information was
not “fully communicated” to the medical team.
The man underwent basic blood tests, but
not an Ebola screening, and was sent home with antibiotics, said Dr.
Edward Goodman with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Three days later, the man returned to the facility, where it was determined that he probably had Ebola. He was then isolated.
“The hospital followed all suggested CDC
protocols at that time. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas’
staff is thoroughly trained in infection control procedures and
protocols,” the hospital said Wednesday.
The Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention, which has helped to lead the international response to
Ebola, advises that all medical facilities should ask patients with
symptoms consistent with Ebola for their travel history.
Duncan’s travel history “was not acted upon in an appropriate way,” said Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent.
“A nurse did ask the question and he did
respond that he was in Liberia and that wasn’t transmitted to people
who were in charge of his care,” Gupta said. “There’s no excuse for
this.”
A US official told CNN senior medical
correspondent Elizabeth Cohen that the situation was clearly “a
screw-up.” A patient who shows up to a hospital with a fever and a
history of travel to Liberia should be treated as an infection risk, the
official said.
Asked repeatedly by Gupta whether the
patient should have been tested for Ebola during his first visit to the
hospital, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said officials were still
looking at details about how the case was handled.
“We know that in busy emergency
departments all over the country, people may not ask travel histories. I
don’t know if that was done here,” Frieden said. “But we need to make
sure that it is done going forward.”
Duncan is a 42-year-old Liberian
national, according to his friend. This is Duncan’s first trip to the
US, where he was visiting family and friends.
The close associate, who does not want
to be identified because of the sensitivity of the case, contacted the
CDC with concerns that the hospital was not moving quickly enough after
Duncan’s second hospital visit.
The associate said Duncan is “all right” now, but is in pain and hasn’t eaten in a week.
He is in serious condition, the hospital told CNN. Neither the hospital nor government officials have identified Duncan by name.
Tracing contacts
A CDC team is in Dallas helping to find anyone Duncan may have come in contact with, Frieden said.
Once those people are identified, they
will be monitored for 21 days – taking their temperatures twice a day –
in cooperation with local and state health officials, Frieden said.
Some school-age children have been in
contact with the Ebola patient, but the students haven’t exhibited
symptoms of the deadly virus, authorities said.
Five students at four different schools came into contact with the man, Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles said.
The children are being monitored at home, and the schools they attended remain open, he said.
Paramedics who transported the patient
to the hospital have been isolated, Rawlings’ chief of staff said. They
have not shown symptoms of the disease so far, Frieden said.
The ambulance used to carry the patient
was still in use for two days after the transport, city of Dallas
spokeswoman Sana Syed said.
But she emphasised that the paramedics
decontaminated the ambulance, as they do after every transport,
according to national standards.
Pupils stay at home
Worries over Ebola kept some Dallas
schoolchildren home Thursday after school officials identified five
students who might have come into contact with the first person in the
US to be diagnosed with the virus.
The Dallas Independent School District
was still gathering morning attendance figures from four campuses where
the affected students were in class earlier this week, spokesman Andre
Riley said. Those students have shown no symptoms and are being
monitored at home, where they are expected to remain for three weeks.
But there are already signs of parents taking no chances.
Yah Zuo left L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary
on Thursday morning with her two children, including a six-year-old
daughter. Zuo hoped to enrol her elsewhere.
Zuo is of Liberian origin and said she knows the family of Duncan.
“In situations like this, you cannot stay friends. You have to protect the ones you love,” ,” Zuo said.
She added, “This virus is not something you play with.”
It was not exactly clear how Duncan
knew the students, but his sister said he had been visiting with family,
including two nephews.
