Staff at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas had to work out how best to protect themselves as it was several days before full protective gear arrived. Photo: AP
Dallas: The Texas hospital that treated Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan had to learn on the fly how to control the deadly virus, adding new layers of protective gear for workers in what became a losing battle to keep the contagion from spreading, a top official with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.
"They kept adding more protective equipment as the patient deteriorated. They had masks first, then face shields, then the positive-pressure respirator. They added a second pair of gloves," CDC epidemiologist Pierre Rollin said.
Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan. Photo: AP
A nurse, Nina Pham, 26, contracted Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas while caring for Mr Duncan, a Liberian man who flew to the United States.
Ms Pham, who is being treated at the same hospital, was reported to be in a good condition.
CDC director Thomas Frieden expressed regret that his agency had not done more to help the hospital control the infection.
He said that, from now on, "Ebola response teams" would travel within hours to any hospital in the US with a confirmed Ebola case.
Already, one of those teams is in Texas and
has put in place a site manager system, requiring that someone monitor the use of personal protective equipment.
"I wish we had put a team like this on the ground the day the first patient was diagnosed," he said. "That might have prevented this infection."
Nurses and others caring for Ebola patients at the end of their lives were at high risk of infection because the virus replicated wildly as the disease became more advanced, said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine in Houston and a professor at the Baylor College of Medicine.
Professor Hotez said "when you are first infected, you are actually not contagious", because levels of the virus in blood were too low to spread the infection.
"Even in the early days of an infection, the virus is not easily transmitted from person to person because it requires direct contact," he said.
The risk goes up exponentially as the virus gains ground in the body, so Ebola patients treated in intensive care units are far more infectious than those at earlier stages of illness.
"When you are working with Ebola in an ICU, there can be no margin of error," he said.
Dr Rollin said protocols evolved at the hospital while Mr Duncan was being treated.
Labour organisation National Nurses United read a statement from nurses at the hospital who said Mr Duncan sat for "several hours" in a room with other patients before being put in isolation.
The nurses said they were essentially left to figure things out for themselves as they dealt with "copious amounts" of body fluids from Mr Duncan while wearing gloves with no wrist tapes, gowns that did not cover their necks, and no surgical booties.
Protective gear eventually arrived but not until three days after Mr Duncan's admission to the hospital, they said.
The Ebola news in the US came amid warnings from the World Health Organisation that the disease is spreading to new areas in West Africa and is still rampant in the capital cities of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Bruce Aylward, the WHO assistant director general, said that without a strong response, the virus could be infecting as many as 10,000 people a week in West Africa by December 1.
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