Health Officials See Breach in Ebola Protocol at Texas Hospital
Wall Street Journal Staff
Top U.S. health officials said news of a Texas health worker who has preliminarily tested positive for Ebola shows there was a breach in safety protocol at the hospital that treated an Ebola patient who died last week.
“I think the fact that we don’t know of a breach in protocol is concerning because clearly there was a breach in protocol,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “We have the ability to prevent the spread of Ebola by caring safely for patients.”
Earlier on Sunday, Texas health officials said that the health-care worker, who treated the patient who died, reported a low-grade fever Friday night and was isolated. A blood sample tested positive at the state public-health laboratory late Saturday and the CDC is conducting a confirmatory test in Atlanta.
“This was a breach in protocol,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy of Infectious Diseases, speaking on ABC’s “This Week.” He said that there had to have been “an inadvertent, innocent breach of the protocol of taking care of a patient within the personal protective equipment. That extremely rarely happens.”
He said, “the CDC is trying to find out now just what that breach was.”
On Capitol Hill, a lawmaker said that the public needed more assurances that the government was on top of the problem.
Speaking on CNN, Arizona Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said, “my constituents are not comforted. There has to be more reassurance given to them. We don’t know exactly who’s in charge.”
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| Thomas Eric Duncan was the first Ebola case in the United States. |
Top U.S. health officials said news of a Texas health worker who has preliminarily tested positive for Ebola shows there was a breach in safety protocol at the hospital that treated an Ebola patient who died last week.
“I think the fact that we don’t know of a breach in protocol is concerning because clearly there was a breach in protocol,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “We have the ability to prevent the spread of Ebola by caring safely for patients.”
Earlier on Sunday, Texas health officials said that the health-care worker, who treated the patient who died, reported a low-grade fever Friday night and was isolated. A blood sample tested positive at the state public-health laboratory late Saturday and the CDC is conducting a confirmatory test in Atlanta.
“This was a breach in protocol,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy of Infectious Diseases, speaking on ABC’s “This Week.” He said that there had to have been “an inadvertent, innocent breach of the protocol of taking care of a patient within the personal protective equipment. That extremely rarely happens.”
He said, “the CDC is trying to find out now just what that breach was.”
On Capitol Hill, a lawmaker said that the public needed more assurances that the government was on top of the problem.
Speaking on CNN, Arizona Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said, “my constituents are not comforted. There has to be more reassurance given to them. We don’t know exactly who’s in charge.”
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