(Newswire.net — October 15, 2014) — An unidentified health care worker stricken with Ebola at Presbeterian Hospital in Dallas Texas was interviewed to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, according to a statement released by the CDC.
“An additional health care worker testing positive for Ebola is a serious concern, and the CDC has already taken active steps to minimize the risk to health care workers and the patient,” the CDC said in a statement.
Regardless of the reason, “What happened there [in Dallas], is not acceptable. It shouldn’t have happened,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of NIH in an interview aired on MSNBC.
CDC director Frieden said a total of 76 people at the hospital might have been exposed to Duncan, the Liberian index patinet, before he died at the hospital. All are being daily monitored for fever and other symptoms.
Frieden said some of the world’s leading experts on how to treat Ebola and protect health care workers will review issues including how isolation rooms are laid out, what protective equipment health workers use, waste management and decontamination.
The death rate in the outbreak has risen to 70 percent as it has killed nearly 4,500 people, most of them in West Africa. The previous mortality rate was about 50 percent, the WHO said.
The total number of people being monitored is now 125, health officials said.
However, “The longer the Ebola epidemic continues infecting people unabated, the higher the chances it will mutate and become airborne, said Anthony Banbury, the Secretary General’s Special Representative.
“We are fighting for people who are alive and healthy today, but will become infected by Ebola and die if we do not put in place the necessary emergency response,” he said in a video link from Ghana, urging that only 50 safe-burial teams are on the ground of 500 required. Ebola fighters need protective gear and about a thousand vehicles. So far, Mr. Banbury said, the mission has delivered 69 vehicles.
“We either stop Ebola now, or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan.” Banbury said pointing that there is a small window of time before the outbreak expands to levels where it cannot be controlled.
The Security Council in September passed a resolution that declared Ebola a threat to international peace and security.