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 The new guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in Atlanta come as 43 people who were exposed to the
first patient diagnosed in the United States were declared risk
free, easing a national sense of crisis that took hold after two
Texas nurses who treated him contracted the disease.
Under new protocols, Ebola healthcare workers also must undergo
special training and demonstrate competency in using protective
equipment. Use of the gear, now including coveralls, and single-use,
disposable hoods, must be overseen by a supervisor to ensure proper
procedures are followed when caring for patients with Ebola, which
is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids but is not
airborne. (CDC protocols: http://1.usa.gov/1vYIwWA)
The hemorrhagic fever has killed more than 4,500 people, mainly in
the West African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
“Even a single healthcare worker infection is unacceptable,” CDC
Director Tom Frieden said in a teleconference with reporters
outlining the new regulations.
The old guidelines for health workers, based on World Health
Organization protocols, said they should wear masks or goggles but
allowed some skin exposure.
More than 40 people exposed to the first Ebola patient diagnosed in
the United States, Thomas Eric Duncan, emerged from isolation with a
clean bill of health on Monday.
Among those released from monitoring on Monday were the only four
individuals quarantined by official order - Duncan's fiancée and
three other people who shared an apartment with him in Dallas before
he was hospitalized. Duncan died on Oct. 8.
Texas officials said 120 other potentially exposed people in the
state, more than half of them medical workers who had contact with
Duncan after he was hospitalized, were still being monitored for
Ebola symptoms for the remainder of a 21-day incubation period.
That group includes the two nurses who became infected while
treating him at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas,
presumably because they were wearing flimsy protective gear that
left some of their skin exposed.
The Obama administration, drawing sharp criticism for a government
response to the Ebola crisis widely seen as inadequate, was also
taking steps aimed at ensuring a swifter action in the future.
Later this week, 30 military medical personnel are due to begin
training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, to move quickly
to help deal with any possible case of Ebola in the United States,
military officials said. They include 20 critical care nurses, five
infectious disease doctors, and five trainers with "great knowledge"
of infectious disease protocol, said Major Beth Smith, a spokeswoman
for the U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The man newly appointed by President Barack Obama to coordinate the
response to Ebola inside the country, lawyer Ron Klain, will start
work on Wednesday.
Klain was invited to testify at a House of Representatives oversight
hearing on Friday, but he will not attend. His mandate is to reduce
fears and work on improving federal coordination with states to
control the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, there were signs that fears over Ebola and a series of
false alarms reported in the past few weeks had tapered off.
In the financial markets, it was evident that investors were growing
more sanguine over the Ebola threat. Several of the stocks that were
hit hardest - including airlines and hotels - bounced back sharply
Monday. Shares of small biotech companies, medical equipment makers
and drugmakers related to Ebola research and preparedness were down.
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Dr. Mark Rupp, an infectious disease specialist at the Nebraska
Medical Center in Omaha, which is treating Ebola-infected cameraman
Ashoka Mukpo, told a news conference on Monday he hoped the removal
of people from watch lists in Dallas would help quell some of what
he called irrational fear surrounding Ebola.
"Simply being on a bus, being on a plane, closing schools,
preventing cruise ships from docking – these are all just examples
of irrational fear," Rupp said.
The Nebraska hospital said Monday that Mukpo, diagnosed in Liberia,
is doing "quite well" and that depending on test results he could be
discharged in days.
A patient who was admitted to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta
on Sept. 9 after being infected in West Africa was released on
Sunday, the hospital said in a statement on Monday. The patient
asked not to be identified but will make a statement at a later
date, Emory said.
HUNDREDS MONITORED
Ohio health authorities said 142 people were still being monitored
in that state for symptoms. Three people remained under quarantine
because they had direct skin contact with one of the two nurses
infected by Duncan after she visited the state by airliner.
At the Catholic Conference Center in Dallas where Duncan's fiancée
Louise Troh and the other three people closest to Duncan had been in
quarantine, Bishop Kevin Farrell said they were relieved the
isolation period had ended. "They felt like they were being
persecuted," Farrell said.
Four of five Dallas school students who have been cleared by health
authorities to resume regular activities following exposure to the
virus returned to school on Monday, one day earlier than expected.
The United States and some European governments are checking
selected airports for passengers traveling from Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Guinea, the three West African countries worst hit by
Ebola.
In a similar move on Monday, Carnival Cruise Lines said passengers
will be asked to fill out a questionnaire on whether or not they
have experienced symptoms of fever or vomiting and if they have
recently traveled to West Africa or had contact with someone known
or suspected to have Ebola.
One Carnival cruise was denied docking by Belize and Mexico last
week because a Texas hospital lab worker on board might have come in
contact with test samples from Liberian visitor Duncan. The worker
has tested negative for the virus.
(Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, Karen Brooks and Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, Jim
Forsyth in San Antonio, David Morgan, Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu
in Washington and David Bailey; Writing by Jim Loney and Grant
McCool; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Howard Goller, Toni Reinhold and
Lisa Shumaker)
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