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The use of protective clothing by hospital staff has become the focus of an investigation as to how a Texas nurse became infected while caring for a patient with Ebola, health officials said on Oct. 13.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a press conference that the agency had spent the past 24 hours investigating potential avenues of transmission at the hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas.
Dr. Frieden said that health care workers treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the Ebola patient who died at the hospital on Oct. 8, had been using positive air pressure respirators, suggesting that that the likelihood of their having inhaled infectious material while attending to Mr. Duncan was low. Nor was there evidence of a needlestick, he said.
Health care workers treating patients with Ebola “have to go in and out” of isolation multiple times during the course of a day, Dr. Frieden said. “One of the things we’ve found is that sometimes health care workers think more is better and may put on additional sets of gloves or additional coverings, and that may end up paradoxically making things less safe, because it may be difficult to remove those layers and it inadvertently increases risk. We don’t know that happened here, but that’s one of the things we’ve been addressing.”
CDC investigators at Texas Health Presbyterian, where the nurse is bring treated, “are now watching as [health care workers] are putting on and taking off protective garb. … We are looking hard at the infection control practices and making sure they are even more stringent,” Dr. Frieden said.
Dr. Frieden noted that investigators were preparing for the possibility of more cases among health care workers who had contact with Mr. Duncan while he was isolated and treated at the hospital. Dr. Frieden added that “a large number” of health care workers at the Texas hospital potentially had contact with the patient besides the nurse known to be infected, and that the effort to identify and monitor all of them was still ongoing.
“We would not be surprised if we see more cases” in the coming days, Dr. Frieden said.
The use of protective clothing by hospital staff has become the focus of an investigation as to how a Texas nurse became infected while caring for a patient with Ebola, health officials said on Oct. 13.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a press conference that the agency had spent the past 24 hours investigating potential avenues of transmission at the hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas.
Dr. Frieden said that health care workers treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the Ebola patient who died at the hospital on Oct. 8, had been using positive air pressure respirators, suggesting that that the likelihood of their having inhaled infectious material while attending to Mr. Duncan was low. Nor was there evidence of a needlestick, he said.
Health care workers treating patients with Ebola “have to go in and out” of isolation multiple times during the course of a day, Dr. Frieden said. “One of the things we’ve found is that sometimes health care workers think more is better and may put on additional sets of gloves or additional coverings, and that may end up paradoxically making things less safe, because it may be difficult to remove those layers and it inadvertently increases risk. We don’t know that happened here, but that’s one of the things we’ve been addressing.”
CDC investigators at Texas Health Presbyterian, where the nurse is bring treated, “are now watching as [health care workers] are putting on and taking off protective garb. … We are looking hard at the infection control practices and making sure they are even more stringent,” Dr. Frieden said.
Dr. Frieden noted that investigators were preparing for the possibility of more cases among health care workers who had contact with Mr. Duncan while he was isolated and treated at the hospital. Dr. Frieden added that “a large number” of health care workers at the Texas hospital potentially had contact with the patient besides the nurse known to be infected, and that the effort to identify and monitor all of them was still ongoing.
“We would not be surprised if we see more cases” in the coming days, Dr. Frieden said.
The use of protective clothing by hospital staff has become the focus of an investigation as to how a Texas nurse became infected while caring for a patient with Ebola, health officials said on Oct. 13.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a press conference that the agency had spent the past 24 hours investigating potential avenues of transmission at the hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas.
Dr. Frieden said that health care workers treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the Ebola patient who died at the hospital on Oct. 8, had been using positive air pressure respirators, suggesting that that the likelihood of their having inhaled infectious material while attending to Mr. Duncan was low. Nor was there evidence of a needlestick, he said.
Health care workers treating patients with Ebola “have to go in and out” of isolation multiple times during the course of a day, Dr. Frieden said. “One of the things we’ve found is that sometimes health care workers think more is better and may put on additional sets of gloves or additional coverings, and that may end up paradoxically making things less safe, because it may be difficult to remove those layers and it inadvertently increases risk. We don’t know that happened here, but that’s one of the things we’ve been addressing.”
CDC investigators at Texas Health Presbyterian, where the nurse is bring treated, “are now watching as [health care workers] are putting on and taking off protective garb. … We are looking hard at the infection control practices and making sure they are even more stringent,” Dr. Frieden said.
Dr. Frieden noted that investigators were preparing for the possibility of more cases among health care workers who had contact with Mr. Duncan while he was isolated and treated at the hospital. Dr. Frieden added that “a large number” of health care workers at the Texas hospital potentially had contact with the patient besides the nurse known to be infected, and that the effort to identify and monitor all of them was still ongoing.
“We would not be surprised if we see more cases” in the coming days, Dr. Frieden said.
