Second Ebola case in hospital worker may help pinpoint transmission

DALLAS (AP) — Although health officials are dismayed to learn that a second worker at a Dallas hospital contracted Ebola after treating a patient there, the second case could help health officials determine how the workers are becoming infected. And they could use the information to make practices safer for health workers everywhere.

For example, if both health workers were involved in drawing blood from Thomas Duncan, or placing an intravenous line, or suctioning mucus when he was on a breathing machine, that would be recognized as a particularly high-risk activity.

It might also reveal which body fluids pose the greatest risk of transmitting Ebola.

Before the second case emerged, there were suspicions that the lapse may have involved how a nurse put on and removed the protective garb.

Both nurses have been hospitalized at the same hospital where they work. The second nurse will be taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

%@AP Links

184-a-13-(Dr. Tom Frieden, director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), in teleconference)-“but clinically stable”-CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden says the second Dallas health care worker with Ebola is stable, and officials are focused on controlling the spread of the disease. (15 Oct 2014)

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APPHOTO TXMO107: A hazmat cleaning worker arrives in the parking lot of The Village Bend East apartments where a second healthcare worker who has tested positive for the Ebola virus lives, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014, in Dallas. It’s not clear how the second worker contracted the virus. (AP Photo/LM Otero) (15 Oct 2014)

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Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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