|
 Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta told reporters
separately that the United States is assessing whether to issue a
travel ban "on a day-to-day basis" but that the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had determined that a ban would
not address the challenges posed by Ebola.
The congressional hearing comes as concerns about the virus in the
United States are accelerating. Several schools in Ohio and Texas
were closed after concerns that a nurse with Ebola traveled on a
plane with people with ties to the schools.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it would take over
the care of the first Texas nurse diagnosed with Ebola, Nina Pham,
who contracted the virus while treating a man from Liberia who later
died.
Lawmakers focused questions and pointed criticism at the hearing on
CDC chief Dr. Thomas Frieden.
"The administration did not act fast enough in responding in Texas,"
Democratic Representative Bruce Braley of Iowa told the hearing. "We
need to look at all the options available to keep our families safe
and move quickly and responsibly to make any necessary changes at
airports."
Several Republicans said flights from West Africa, where the virus
is widespread, should be stopped.
Ebola has killed nearly 4,500 people in West Africa, predominantly
in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, since March. The virus is
spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected
person.
“I predict you’re going to put on or the president’s going to put on
travel restrictions," Republican Representative Billy Long of
Missouri told Frieden during the hearing. "I don’t know if it’s
going to be today or tomorrow or two weeks or a month from now. But
I think that they’re coming, and I think sooner rather than later.”
Frieden argued, as he has before, that closing U.S. borders would
not work and would leave the country less able to track people with
Ebola entering. Moreover, cutting flights to Africa would hit the
U.S. ability to stop the virus at its source, he said.
Frieden said he has spoken to the White House about the issue of
dealing with people traveling with Ebola. Asked if the White House
had ruled out a travel ban, the CDC chief did not answer directly,
saying, “I can’t speak for the White House.”
SICK NURSES LEAVING TEXAS
Pham, 26, was to be transferred late on Thursday from Dallas to an
isolation unit at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland outside Washington
for treatment, the agency's director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told
lawmakers at Thursday's hearing.
"We will be supplying her with state-of-the-art care in our
high-level containment facilities," said Fauci.
Pham was part of a team of healthcare workers who had treated Thomas
Eric Duncan, the Liberian who was the first patient diagnosed with
Ebola in the United States, at Texas Health Presybterian Hospital.
He died on Oct. 8
Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer and senior vice president
of Texas Health Resources, which owns the hospital, told the hearing
that mistakes were made in diagnosing Duncan and in giving
inaccurate information to the public, and said he was "deeply
sorry."
He said there had been no Ebola training for staff before Duncan was
admitted.
[to top of second column] |
The spread of Ebola to Pham and Amber Vinson - another Dallas nurse
who had cared for Duncan - - and revelations that Vinson had
subsequently traveled on an airplane while running a slight fever,
has prompted Frieden to backtrack on earlier statements about his
confidence in the ability of American health officials to contain
the disease.
"It would be an understatement to say that the response to the first
U.S.-based patient with Ebola has been mismanaged, causing risk to
scores of additional people," said Representative Diana DeGette, the
top Democrat on the subcommittee holding Thursday's hearing.
At least two lawmakers have called for Frieden's resignation.
Others, including Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio,
urged travel restrictions on the countries hardest hit by Ebola. The
disease appeared in the United States last month.
Vinson was transferred to Emory University Hospital for treatment on
Wednesday night.
In Ohio, where Vinson had visited family members, two schools in the
Cleveland suburb of Solon were closed on Thursday because an
employee may have traveled on the same plane as Vinson, though on a
different flight.
The Ohio health department said the CDC was sending staff to help
coordinate efforts to contain the spread of Ebola.
Frontier Airlines said it had placed six crew members on paid leave
for 21 days "out of an abundance of caution."
Back in Texas, the Belton school district in central Texas said
three schools were closed on Thursday because two students were on
the same flight as the nurse.
Frieden has said it was unlikely passengers who flew with Vinson
were infected because the nurse had not vomited or bled on the
flight, but he said she should not have boarded the plane.
A federal official said Wednesday Vinson had told the CDC her
temperature was 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit (37.5 Celsius) but "was not
told not to fly" because that was below the CDC's temperature
threshold of 100.4 F (38 C).
One nurse who helped treat Pham came forward on Thursday to say the
Dallas hospital was unprepared for the emergency and lacked proper
protective gear.
Nurses were not briefed or prepared for Ebola, Briana Aguirre told
NBC's "Today" show, and no special precautions were taken when
Duncan was admitted to the hospital.
"It was a total chaotic scene," she said.
(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington; Jon Herskovitz
in Austin, Colleen Jenkins in North Carolina; Writing by Tom Brown;
Editing by Bernadette Baum and Jonathan Oatis)
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