After caring for the Dallas Ebola patient that died last week, a health care worker tested positive for the virus and now health care officials are trying to discover the lapse in proper protocol that caused her infection, USA Today reported on Sunday.
The woman took care of Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital before he died on Wednesday. The caregiver's diagnosis is the first known case of Ebola transmission on U.S. soil, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She was wearing protective gear when she treated the Liberian national, making it harder to determine how the virus was passed.
The infection of the healthcare worker along with letting Duncan go home after he first arrived at the hospital in September has led to controversy about how equipped American hospitals are at treating and containing Ebola, according to Yahoo News.
Duncan first went to the hospital with Ebola symptoms on Sept. 25 after he arrived in the country to visit family five days earlier. Even though he told medical staff that he traveled from Africa, they found no reason to retain him and sent him home. On Sept. 28, he went back to the hospital and was put in an isolation unit. Duncan succumbed to the deadly virus on Wednesday.
The Ebola epidemic has claimed 4,000 lives in three West African countries, Liberia being one of the hardest hit. The other infected countries are Guinea and Sierra Leone.
There were about 50 people who may have come in contact with Duncan during the three days he was out of the hospital, and Texas health officials have been monitoring their health status.
One of the protocols the CDC will be looking into is how medical personnel removed protective gear. Taking it off incorrectly can cause someone to become infected.
