The chief of the Centers for Disease Control said Monday he would “not be surprised” if more doctors or nurses come down with Ebola from the Dallas patient who died last week, after the first U.S.-contracted case was diagnosed over the weekend in one of the patient’s nurses.
Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC, also apologized for leaving the impression over the weekend that he was blaming the Dallas hospital for failing, saying that he didn’t mean to accuse the hospital of failing, but rather saying they still have faith that the government-designed protocols can stop spread of the disease.
Dr. Frieden has been criticized for those remarks, and sought to try to refocus the debate in a press conference Monday.
“The enemy here is a virus — Ebola. It’s not a person, it’s not a country, it’s not a place, it’s a virus,” the doctor said.
He also again rejected calls for a travel ban, saying he feared a U.S. move could make it tougher to get aide workers and materials to and from the three West African countries chiefly affected by the disease.
The diagnosis of the new patient, whose name hasn’t been released, marks a turning point in the U.S.’s efforts, the CDC chief said, since the Dallas hospital had thought it was following protocols.
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“We have to rethink the way we think Ebola infection control because even a single infection is unacceptable,” he said.
Disease detectives had already been tracking 48 potential contacts from Thomas Eric Duncan, the man who carried Ebola from Liberia to the U.S., and now they will do more tracking of those health care workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who came in contact with Duncan, and anyone who may have come in contact with the nurse who’s now been diagnosed.
So far, they have identified only one person who had contact with the nurse during the time she was “potentially, although likely not, infectious,” Dr. Frieden said.
“The thinking here is: if this one individual was infected and we don’t know how within the isolation unit, then it’s possible other individuals could have been infected as well,” the doctor said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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