Ebola reaches Boston

Ebola suspected in Boston, medic tests positive

Oct 13, 2014. updated: 10:20am

A member of Bellevue's Hospital staff wears protective clothing during a demonstration on how they would receive a suspected Ebola patient.

A US medical clinic outside of Boston is under quarantine and a patient has been isolated outside the hospital with a possible case of Ebola.

Police, fire officials and emergency medical services have arrived at the Harvard Vanguard Medical Center in Braintree, Massachusetts, Joe Zanca, with the Braintree Fire Department, told the Boston Globe.

"Ebola protocol is in place," Zanca said, noting that the patient in isolation recently travelled to West Africa.

The current Ebola outbreak, the worst on record of the disease, has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in West Africa.

The development in Massachusetts came hours after the announcement that a Texas health worker contracted Ebola after treating a Liberian man who died of the disease at a Dallas hospital last week.

If the preliminary diagnosis is confirmed, it would be the first known case of the disease being contracted or transmitted in the US.

Dr Tom Frieden, head of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said the diagnosis shows there was a clear breach of safety protocol and all those who treated Thomas Eric Duncan are now considered to be potentially exposed.

The worker wore a gown, gloves, mask and shield while she cared for Duncan during his second visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, said Dr Daniel Varga of Texas Health Resources, which runs the hospital. Frieden said the worker has not been able to identify a specific breach of protocol that might have led to her being infected.

Duncan, who arrived in the US from Liberia to visit family on September 20, first sought medical care for fever and abdominal pain on September 25. He told a nurse he had travelled from Africa, but he was sent home. He returned September 28 and was placed in isolation because of suspected Ebola. He died on Wednesday.

More than 4000 people have died in the ongoing Ebola epidemic centred in West Africa, according to World Health Organisation figures published at the weekend. Almost all of those deaths have been in the three worst-affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Texas health officials have been closely monitoring nearly 50 people who had or may have had close contact with Duncan in the days after he started showing symptoms.

Advertisement

Varga said the health care worker reported a fever on Friday night as part of a self-monitoring regimen required by the CDC. He said another person is in isolation, and the hospital has stopped accepting new emergency room patients.

"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," said Dr David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. "We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread."

But Frieden has raised concerns about a possible breach of safety protocol and told CBS' Face the Nation that among the things CDC will investigate is how the workers took off that gear, because removing it incorrectly can lead to contamination. Investigators will also look at dialysis and intubation, procedures with the potential for spreading infectious material.

Officials said they also received information that there may be a pet in the health care worker's apartment, and they have a plan in place to care for the animal. They do not believe the pet has signs of having contracted Ebola.

Health care workers treating Ebola patients are among the most vulnerable, even if wearing protective gear. A Spanish nurse assistant recently became the first health care worker infected outside west Africa during the ongoing outbreak: she helped care for a missionary priest who was brought to a Madrid hospital. More than 370 health care workers in west Africa have fallen ill or died in west Africa since epidemic began earlier this year.

Ebola spreads through close contact with a symptomatic person's bodily fluids, such as blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen. Those fluids must have an entry point, like a cut or scrape or someone touching the nose, mouth or eyes with contaminated hands, or being splashed. The World Health Organisation says blood, faeces and vomit are the most infectious fluids, while the virus is found in saliva mostly once patients are severely ill. The whole live virus has never been culled from sweat.

Duncan, the first person in the US diagnosed with Ebola, came to Dallas to attend the high-school graduation of his son, who was born in a refugee camp in Ivory Coast and brought to the US as a toddler when his mother successfully applied for resettlement.

The trip was the culmination of decades of effort, friends and family members said. But when Duncan arrived in Dallas, though he showed no symptoms, he had already been exposed to Ebola. His neighbours in Liberia believe Duncan become infected when he helped a pregnant neighbor who later died from it. It was unclear if he knew about her diagnosis before traveling.

Original article from www.stuff.co.nz