A second nurse who treated Thomas Eric Duncan has Ebola.
The Centers for Disease Control says that not only does Amber Vinson, 26, have the virus, but that she also traveled on an airplane Monday just before she reported having symptoms.
Vinson had been monitoring herself after treating Duncan and self-reported a fever Tuesday morning. She was immediately placed into isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
She is the second of 77 healthcare workers who have been self-monitoring to watch for signs of Ebola.
The CDC says that Vinson lived alone and had no pets. Her home is being sanitized along with all her furniture, bedding and clothing incinerated.
The first nurse to show infection, Nina Pham, worked a different shift than Vinson and the two reportedly had no contact.
Dr. Kent Brantly, the Christian doctor who was one of the first Americans to be infected with Ebola during the current outbreak, says that conditions in Africa are worse than you see on television.
You’ve seen the news reports, and I can assure you, the reality on the ground in West Africa is worse than the worst report you’ve seen. And our attention and our efforts need to be on loving the people there,” he said.
“Let’s stop talking about that highly improbable thing [of an outbreak in America] and focus on saving people’s lives and stopping the outbreak where it is. God saved my life… He used some incredible people and unbelievable circumstances to do that … I want to live in that reality forever.”
Dr. Brantly called the attention being paid to Ebola possibly breaking out in the United States “panic.”
“I just want to tell everyone that yes, Ebola is a serious devastating disease and for those number of people who have been identified as contacts of an Ebola patient, they need to be monitoring themselves, they need to be cooperating with the authorities, with the CDC, and it’s very serious for them, but for the rest of us we don’t need to be worried,” Dr. Brantly said.
“I am particularly thrilled to be alive,” Brantly added.
A nurse who treated the Liberian who arrived in Texas infected with Ebola has been confirmed to be infected with the virus.
“A health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who provided care for the Ebola patient hospitalized there has tested positive for Ebola in a preliminary test at the state public health laboratory in Austin,” reads a statement issued Sunday morning by the Texas Department of State Health Services. “Confirmatory testing will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.”
The head of state health services said he was not surprised to see someone else become infected with the virus.
“We knew a second case could be a reality, and we’ve been preparing for this possibility,” said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. “We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread.”
The CDC was quick to claim the infection had to be a mistake on the part of the nurse, despite having no evidence to back up that claim.
The Liberian man who fell ill with Ebola while in the Dallas area is dead.
Thomas Eric Duncan died Wednesday morning at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. He had been in critical condition for days and rumors had been rampant for days that Duncan was on the verge of death.
Duncan’s family is still in isolation and is being monitored by health officials for any Ebola symptoms. Several others who had close contact with Duncan have been taken to a secret secured location. The Centers for Disease Control says no one has shown signs of Ebola.
The family confirmed that they had received confirmation of Duncan’s death.
CNN is reporting that airports within the United States are now going to take temperatures of passengers arriving from countries with Ebola infections.
The director of the CDC says that new travel guidelines are being developed for Americans.
The head of the Centers for Disease Control has admitted to reporters for the first time the possibility that Ebola could become an airborne virus.
Dr. Tom Frieden, however, sought to downplay the possibility.
“The rate of change [with Ebola] is slower than most viruses, and most viruses don’t change how they spread,” he said. “That is not to say it’s impossible that it could change [to become airborne.] That would be the worst-case scenario. We would know that by looking at … what is happening in Africa. That is why we have scientists from the CDC on the ground tracking that.”
Frieden pointed to evidence that there is very little proof of a human virus ever mutating to the point it transmits in an entirely different way.
“We have so many problems with Ebola, let’s not make another one that, of course, is theoretically possible but is pretty way down on the list of likely issues,” infectious diseases expert William Schaffner told Scientific American.
The man who brought Ebola into the United States could be facing prosecution in Liberia because he apparently lied on exit forms.
Thomas Eric Duncan told the Liberian Airport Authority “no” when he was asked if he has cared for anyone who had Ebola or touched the body of someone who had died from Ebola. Duncan had multiple contacts with a pregnant woman who died of the killer virus.
“The fact that he knew [he was exposed to Ebola] and he left the country is unpardonable, quite frankly,” Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told reporters. “I just hope that nobody else gets infected.”
“With the U.S. doing so much to help us fight Ebola, and again one of our compatriots didn’t take due care, and so, he’s gone there and … put some Americans in a state of fear, and put them at some risk,” she continued. “I feel very saddened by that and very angry with him, to tell you the truth.”
Duncan was not symptomatic when he came to the United States and fell ill days after he arrived in Texas.
The CDC has released a statement saying that Duncan was not symptomatic during his flights to the United States and that passengers on the flight were not at risk for Ebola. However, the airlines are reportedly contacting anyone who was on the flights for their own precautions.
The situation the President described as “unlikely” and officials at the CDC doubted would happen has come true.
The first American case of Ebola has been confirmed.
“We received in our laboratory today specimens from the individual, tested them and they tested positive for Ebola,” Dr. Tom Frieden of the CDC said. “The State of Texas also operates a laboratory that found the same results.”
The Centers for Disease Control has confirmed that a Liberian man who came to the United States to visit relatives tested positive for the virus. He arrived in the U.S. on September 20th but did not show symptoms until four days later. He went to a hospital on Friday and was admitted on Sunday.
Dr. Frieden said that he is certain there will be no major outbreak.
“It does not spread from someone who doesn’t have fever and other symptoms,” Frieden outlined. “So, it’s only someone who is sick with Ebola who can spread the disease. I have no doubt that we will control or contain this case of Ebola so it does not spread throughout the country.”
A panel at the Values Voter Summit says that the national media is missing the boat when it comes to young people and sex.
“When young adults are asked what they are looking for, they’re not looking for hook-ups. They’re preferring romance over sex, relationships over sex. But most people don’t recognize that,” Valerie Huber, president and CEO of the National Abstinence Education Association said.
She cited a survey from the Centers for Disease Control that showed a 15 percent increase in the number of young people waiting to have sex until marriage.
Huber added that many young people are looking to the media to portray reality rather than pushing a hyper-sexualized agenda on the community.
“Here is what this generation wants: they want the media to show more youth not having sex. They want to hear more reasons to wait for sex — and this is according to a very broad national study — and they want to hear that waiting for sex is realistic; and they want to know waiting for sex is, in fact, quite normal,” said Huber.
David Knopp of Summit Ministries said parents, mentors and peers need to step up and take back control of sex education from those who want to make sex appear as something just for fun or something insignificant to the larger parts of life.
Chelsen Vicari of the Institute on Religion and Democracy said that young Christians need to better defend the Biblical view on sexuality to those inside and outside the church and strive for the purity that God calls for everyone before marriage.
The mysterious viral illness that has been striking children has now spread to 38 states.
The Centers for Disease Control has confirmed 226 cases of enterovirus 68. However, the CDC admits that many other children have likely been infected with the virus and was not severe enough to seek medical attention at a hospital.
Doctors say the reports of the CDC are the “tip of the iceberg” for the mysterious virus.
University of Chicago’s Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital has been forced to divert ambulances to other hospitals because the emergency room was filled with children suffering from severe respiratory illness. It was the first time in 10 years the hospital had to divert ambulances.
Doctors say that while enteroviruses are common illnesses, enterovirus 68 is rare.
“Parents would love to know why this virus is causing severe disease and why there are more cases,” Rafal Tokarz, an associate research scientist at Columbia University who has studied the virus, told the New York Times, “but we won’t be able to answer that until a lot more research is done.”
The Centers for Disease Control is laying out the case for a very grim start to the new year.
The CDC says that as little as 550,000 and up to 1.4 million people could be infected with Ebola by the start of the new year if it is not contained. The World Health Organization says that so far they only have 5,800 confirmed cases and 2,800 deaths, but admit there could be cases in rural areas that are not reported to health care officials.
The CDC report says that currently cases in Liberia are doubling every 15-20 days and doubling in Guinea & Sierra Leone every 30 to 40 days.
The CDC admits their scenario does not take into account the 3,000 troops and medical personnel that President Obama is sending to the region to attempt to control the spread of the killer virus.
The CDC also said that if 70 percent of patients are cared for in proper medical facilities the epidemic can be contained.
The WHO also released a report showing that 337 healthcare workers have been infected with the virus while helping victims and 181 of them have died.