Second U.S. Ebola Patient Diagnosed

The second healthcare worker from a Texas hospital to be diagnosed with Ebola took a flight from Cleveland to Dallas the night before her symptoms appeared, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Because of the proximity in time between the evening flight and the patient's first report of a fever the following morning, the CDC is reaching out to all 132 passengers who flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth on Oct. 13.
Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said in a new conference today that the health care worker, Amber Vinson, was "self monitoring" and "should not have been allowed to travel by plane or any public transport," because she was known to be in an "exposed group" of people who treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.
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Frieden said the CDC would ensure from now on that all health care workers who helped care for Duncan would not travel by public transportation.
According to flight staff on the Frontier flight, Vinson showed no signs or symptoms of the disease while on board the flight.
Vinson reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, state health officials said in a statement.
Health officials have interviewed Vinson to identify all possible people she had contact with since caring for Duncan. Those contacts will be monitored for any signs of the disease.
At a press briefing Wednesday morning, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said the city’s fire department has begun decontaminating areas of Vinson’s apartment and outside the building. They have also informed neighbors of the diagnosis. Vinson lives alone and has no pets, Rawlings said.
“The only way that we are going to beat this is person by person, moment by moment, detail by detail,” Rawlings said. “It may get worse before it gets better, but it will get better,” he said.
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Vinson was among nearly 100 doctors, nurses and assistants who treated Duncan for 10 days at Presbyterian. The diagnosis comes three days after the diagnosis of a nurse, Nina Pham, 26, who had treated the Liberian man.
Pham, said in a statement Tuesday that she was “doing well and want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers.”
The original Ebola victim in Texas, Duncan, 42, arrived in Dallas last month and died last Wednesday, was diagnosed on Sept. 30, two days after he was admitted to the hospital. Health-care workers in Duncan’s home country of Liberia plan to go on strike.
At least 4,447 people have died in West Africa in the worst-ever outbreak of the virus, which can cause fever, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea. Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of a sick person or exposure to contaminated objects such as needles. People are not contagious before symptoms, such as fever, develop.