Ebola Nurse From Dallas Transferred to Atlanta Medical Center

THURSDAY, Oct. 16, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- The second nurse at a Dallas hospital to be diagnosed with Ebola was transferred Wednesday night to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, the medical center that has successfully treated two other patients with the often fatal disease.

Amber Joy Vinson, 29, was diagnosed on Wednesday with Ebola after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who died from Ebola on Oct. 8 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. At Emory, Vinson will be treated in a special isolation unit designed to care for patients with highly infectious diseases like Ebola. Emory is one of four hospitals nationwide with such isolation units. There have been no reports of health care workers at Emory contracting Ebola.

The other Ebola patients treated at Emory include medical missionaries Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who contracted the disease while working in Ebola-ravaged West Africa. A third patient, as yet unnamed, is still receiving care at Emory.

The other nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital diagnosed with Ebola after caring for Duncan -- 26-year-old Nina Pham -- continues to undergo treatment at the Dallas hospital, where officials said Wednesday she was in good condition.

To allay fears of hospital workers in the United States, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday that he was establishing a CDC Ebola response team that will be sent to "any hospital anywhere in this country with a confirmed case of Ebola."

"We will put a team on the ground within hours, with some of the world's leading experts" in infection control, laboratory science, protective equipment and management of Ebola units, Frieden said.

Meanwhile, U.S. customs and public health officials on Thursday will begin stepped-up entry screening at four more airports for travelers arriving from West Africa. The airports are Washington Dulles International, O'Hare International in Chicago, Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta and Newark Liberty International in New Jersey.

The screenings began Saturday at Kennedy International Airport in New York City, and have gone smoothly, Frieden said Wednesday.

The five airports handle 94 percent of the roughly 150 travelers who arrive daily in the United States from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Frieden said. Kennedy Airport receives nearly half of those travelers. Those three countries have borne the brunt of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Vinson flew on a domestic, commercial airline flight on Monday evening -- less than 24 hours before she reported Ebola symptoms to hospital staff in Dallas, federal health officials said Wednesday.

Health officials said the risk was low that Vinson exposed her fellow passengers to Ebola during Frontier Airlines flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth.

"The fact that patient number two did not have a fever until the next day, did not have nausea or vomiting on the plane, suggests to us that the risk to any around that individual on the plane would have been extremely low," Frieden said during a Wednesday news conference.

U.S. health experts have maintained that Ebola can only be transmitted by a person who is exhibiting symptoms, such as fever or vomiting.

Nonetheless, the CDC is working with Frontier to identify and notify all 132 passengers on the flight, which landed in Dallas on Monday at 8:16 p.m. CT, as an "extra margin of safety," Frieden said.

Vinson already was in Ohio when she learned that fellow nurse Pham had been diagnosed with Ebola. Vinson violated CDC safety guidelines by boarding the flight back to Dallas, Frieden said.

"Because at that point she was in a group of individuals known to have exposure to Ebola, she should not have traveled on a commercial airline," he said.

A self-check prior to boarding revealed that her temperature was elevated, at 99.5 degrees, Frieden said. Even though Vinson had not reached the fever threshold of 100.4 degrees, her temperature, combined with her potential exposure to Ebola, should have kept her off the plane, Frieden said.

"By both of those criteria, she should not have been on that plane," Frieden said. But, he added, "She did not vomit. She was not bleeding. So the level of risk to people around her would be extremely low."

Anyone who was on the flight is asked to call 1 800-CDC INFO (1-800-232-4636).

Officials have identified three people other than the passengers on the flight from Cleveland who may have been exposed to Ebola through Vinson, Frieden said. All will be monitored, he said.

Health officials also are monitoring one person who could have been exposed through Pham, as well as 76 health care workers potentially exposed while caring for Duncan at the Dallas hospital. The CDC is working with state and local officials to track the movement of these people, Frieden said.

Officials also are still monitoring 48 people who may have been exposed to Ebola through contact with Duncan prior to his hospitalization in Dallas. But Frieden said Tuesday that he was optimistic that this first pool of potential exposures will emerge without a single infection.

Two-thirds of the 21-day maximum incubation period for Ebola has passed and no one from that group has developed any symptoms, he said Tuesday.

"They've now passed through the highest risk period and it's increasingly unlikely that they will develop Ebola," he said.

Duncan became infected with Ebola in his native Liberia before arriving in Dallas on Sept. 20.

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa -- the worst in history -- continues to spiral out of control, with the World Health Organization warning there could be up to 10,000 new cases a week within two months.

The WHO updated its Ebola statistics on Wednesday, reporting that 4,493 people have died out of 8,997 reported cases of infection. Nearly all cases and deaths have occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

More information

For more on Ebola, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.