Second Dallas nurse with Ebola was on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143
DALLAS ? A second nurse who cared for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan has been diagnosed with the deadly disease ? a day after flying from Ohio to Texas, officials said.
Amber Joy Vinson, 29, reported a fever late Tuesday and was immediately isolated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
Vinson?s condition has worsened, and she will be flown to a biocontainment unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, federal officials said during a Wednesday news conference.
CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said Vinson, who was in Ohio to plan her wedding, was not experiencing symptoms at the time of her flight but ?should not have traveled? on her return flight to Texas after learning in Ohio that she was a potential infection risk.
The CDC is asking that all 132 passengers on Monday?s Frontier Airlines flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth call 1-800-CDC-INFO. The flight landed at 8:16 p.m. CT Monday.
Frieden said because Vinson didn?t have a fever and wasn?t vomiting on the flight, it ?suggests to us that the risk to any person around that individual on the plane would have been extremely low.?
Going forward, Frieden said, no one else involved in Duncan's care will be allowed to travel ?other than in a controlled environment.?
The White House conceded on Wednesday that there have been ?shortcomings? in the response to the Dallas Ebola crisis. "It's not clear what protocols were in place and how those protocols were implemented," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said during a news conference.
Vinson was among 76 hospital workers who cared for Duncan, a Liberian citizen who died from Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian a week ago. Her colleague, Nina Pham, was diagnosed with the virus on Sunday and is also in isolation at their hospital.
It has not been determined how either nurse was infected, but Frieden said investigators are focusing on the Sept. 28-30 time frame. An ambulance rushed Duncan to the hospital on Sept. 28, and he was placed in ?strict isolation.? Two days later, Duncan was officially diagnosed as the first Ebola case in the United States.
Vinson and Pham worked those days and had ?extensive contact with the patient when he was having substantial amounts of both vomiting and diarrhea,? Frieden said.
Federal investigators, Frieden said, have learned that the hospital used various forms of personal protective gear during Duncan?s first days at Texas Health Presbyterian. Medical records provided by Duncan's family show that hospital staffers didn't trade in their gowns and scrubs for hazmat suits until the CDC confirmed his Ebola diagnosis, the Associated Press reported.
?There are several ways to use personal protective equipment safely,? Frieden said. ?It?s critical that that be done consistently and correctly. That?s one of the areas of active investigation.?
At an early-morning news conference, a bleary-eyed Dr. Daniel Varga, the hospital's chief clinical officer, called Vinson's infection ?an unprecedented crisis.?
?We?re a hospital that may have done some things differently with the benefit of what we know today,? Varga said. ?Make no mistake: No one wants to get this right more than our hospital.?
Throughout the day, local and federal authorities warned that Vinson and Pham may only represent the beginning of the spread of Ebola to the United States.
?This second health care worker case is very concerning,? Frieden said. ?We are planning for the possibility of additional cases in the coming days.?
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins called the second diagnosis a ?gut shot? to the hospital staff and acknowledged that officials were scouting additional hospitals with isolation rooms, should they be needed.
?That is a very real possibility,? he said.
A hazardous-materials team is now decontaminating Vinson's Dallas apartment in a community not far from the hospital. City officials said she lived alone and had no pets.
?This is a heroic person, a person who has dedicated her life to helping others and is a servant leader,? Jenkins said.
Vinson, a nurse in Texas for two years, was in Ohio visiting family near Akron. She arrived in Cleveland last Saturday on Frontier Flight 1142, according to the airline.
Vinson attended Kent State University and is related to three employees there, Reuters reported. University officials said she did not visit the campus on her recent trip home.
?Out of an abundance of caution, we're asking the patient's family members to remain off campus for the next 21 days and self-monitor per CDC protocol,? Dr. Angela DeJulius, Kent State's health services director, said in a statement.
In addition to the more than 70 hospital workers being monitored, an additional 48 people who had either direct or indirect contact with Duncan before he was hospitalized are being watched for Ebola symptoms. None have shown signs of the illness so far, officials said.
Duncan, who had traveled from West Africa to Dallas days before becoming ill, was the first person to be diagnosed with the virus in the United States. The disease, for which there is no known cure, has killed more than 4,000 people in West Africa in 2014, the World Health Organization estimates.
?I continue to believe that while Dallas is anxious about this ? and, with this news this morning, the anxiety level goes up a level ? we are not fearful,? Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said. ?It may get worse before it gets better, but it will get better.?
