Deeply Concerning But Not To Worry

"We're deeply concerned about this new development. I think the fact that we don't know of a breach in protocol is concerning, because clearly there was a breach in protocol. We have the ability to prevent the spread of Ebola by caring safely for patients."
"The level of her [Texas health worker] symptoms and indications from the test itself suggest that the level of virus she had was low."
Dr. Thoma Frieden, head, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility. Preliminary [test results late Saturday indicated the presence of the virus in the health-care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where Liberian patient, Thomas E. Duncan, died last week]."
"We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread."
David Lakey, state health department commissioner, Texas Department of State Health Services

Lifeline: Dr Kent Brantly (top), who has been cleared of Ebola, has matched blood types with Nina Pham (bottom) and donated so she can receive a blood transfusion to battle the deadly virus she caught treating a patient

So much for the advanced technology of Western medical understanding and equipment in assuring the public that Ebola could never become a problem as it has in West Africa. American health officials repeatedly emphasize fever is a reliable sign of infectiousness. According to Dr. Frieden about 150 air passengers daily -- 1,050 on a weekly basis, enter the United States from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea where the Ebola outbreak is ferocious.

But screening at airports for fever is an assurance that can be relied upon. This is the single overriding symptom above all others that triggers the warning signal for Ebola infection. Confoundingly, on the other hand, the largest study of the outbreak that is currently confusing and terrorizing the world health community is that in almost 13 percent of "confirmed and probable" cases in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and elsewhere there were no warning fevers in those affected.

Still, health authorities cling to their claim that there must most certainly have been a breach in protocol leading to the infection of the health care worker in Dallas leading to the first U.S. transmission of the virus. The White House has extended its authority to order federal health agencies to take "as expeditiously as possible" further steps to ensure that health facilities nationwide follow infection control protocols.

Of course this is precisely what all the American health authorities have confidently been expressing; that in their country they are well prepared to cope with all and any such exigencies should they arise. Well, they appear to have, and in the process to have puzzled the same authorities, since this was definitely not the agreed-upon plot. This was not supposed to happen with a virus that is not air-borne. Perhaps due respect was not given to the deadly pathogen's capacity to transmit itself.

A full investigation of procedures at the Texas hospital is underway, however. And the Centres for Disease Control is in the process of identifying all other health workers who may have come into contact with the affected worker. In addition to which all health-care workers who had cared for Thomas Duncan before he died will also now be closely watched in quarantine.

"Unfortunately, it is possible in the coming days that we will see additional cases of Ebola", noted Dr. Frieden. "This is because the health-care workers who cared for this individual may have had a breach of the same nature of the individual who appears now to have a preliminary positive test." Three paramedics who treated Mr. Duncan are now also under observation. Not to worry, Texas health officials are prepared.

"We expected that it was possible that a second person could contract the virus. Contingency plans were put into place, and the hospital will discuss the way that the health-care worker followed those contingency plans, which will make our jobs in monitoring and containment much easier in this case than in the last one", explained Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.