No. There is concern, too, at Yale University, where a doctoral student who recently returned to Connecticut from Liberia has a fever and is in isolation at Yale-New Haven Hospital, hospital officials told reporters Thursday. The student is being tested for Ebola, they said, and results should be available within 24 hours. http://www.courant.com/health/hc-yale-new-haven-hospital-1017-20141016-story.html Spoiler NEW HAVEN — State officials expect to hear preliminary test results by 4 p.m. Thursday on a patient who recently traveled to Liberia and was admitted to Yale-New Haven Hospital Wednesday night with a fever. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said a "regional" test is being conducted now in Boston. If the results are negative, then that ends the testing. If the results are positive, a second test is performed. The patient, reported in stable condition Thursday afternoon, is one of two Yale University students who returned home last week after spending a month in Liberia researching the Ebola outbreak, according to the New Haven mayor's office. A statement released by the hospital Thursday morning states, "Yale-New Haven Hospital admitted a patient late Wednesday night for evaluation of Ebola-like symptoms. We have not confirmed or ruled-out any diagnosis at this point." At a press conference Thursday afternoon, hospital officials said the patient initially contacted a primary care physician after experiencing a fever. The physician and the hospital arranged for the patient to be transported to the hospital's Emergency Department Wednesday evening. The patient is in "good and stable condition," hospital officials said. A HazMat team responded to the hospital late Wednesday night and the patient was placed in isolation, which is part of the hospital's standard protocol. "We don't know what we have," a hospital spokesman said early Thursday morning. Samples from the patient have been sent to the CDC, but officials said Thursday morning that they were encouraged by the fact that the patient's fever subsided after being admitted. The hospital said it is working with city, state and federal health officials. When they returned from Liberia, the students initially planned to sequester themselves for 21 days. Paul D. Cleary, dean of Yale University's School of Public Health, said Monday in a letter that "after carefully considering the matter, a university-wide team of physicians, epidemiologists and senior administrators concluded that a 21-day sequestration was unnecessary." The decision not to sequester the students was made in coordination with the CDC, Yale Medical School Dean Robert Alpern said at the press conference. In a letter sent to the university community Thursday morning, President Peter Salovey said, "There is no indication at this time that the student has contracted the Ebola virus." "I understand that this situation may be worrying to some of you, to your families and friends, and to members of the Yale and New Haven communities," Salovey said. "The health and safety of our interconnected communities is always our highest priority." The students reported that they were not in contact with Ebola patients or caregivers in Liberia and have closely monitored their own health since they returned, he said. The mayor's office said Thursday that the second student is also being monitored. Hospital officials said that anyone who came in contact with the students will be notified. At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and officials from the state Department of Public Health stressed that the state had been preparing for the disease long before Wednesday night. Malloy also directed every hospital in the state to perform a drill within the next week to assure that their safety procedures are up to standard. "I'm not sure it's Ebola," Malloy said early Thursday. "If it is, we'll handle it. If it isn't, I think it was a great test run for a particular hospital – and maybe we need to have those kind of tests done at all of our hospitals." Malloy declined to comment further on the details of the Yale case until he heard the results of the test. "As soon as we know whether it is Ebola or not, we're going to get that out," Malloy said, promising to put out a release as soon as he learned the results of the test. If the preliminary test is positive for Ebola, the CDC will send a team to New Haven, Malloy said. Department of Public Health spokesman Bill Gerrish said that the department is aware of the situation and has been in "close communication" with the hospital and city officials.
re: Nina Pham moving The National Institutes of Heath issued a statement about Pham’s expected arrival at the hospital and admittance to the Special Clinical Studies Unit. “The NIH Clinical Center’s Special Clinical Studies Unit is specifically designed to provide high-level isolation capabilities and is staffed by infectious diseases and critical care specialists. The unit staff is trained in strict infection control practices optimized to prevent spread of potentially transmissible agents such as Ebola,” the statement read in part. “NIH is taking every precaution to ensure the safety of NIH patients, staff, and the public.” The statement says Texas Health Presbyterian requested the move. The hospital released this statement regarding Pham’s move: “Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, CDC and Texas Department of State Health Services jointly evaluated the options for the continuing care of our patients, including Nina Pham. We believe that transferring Nina to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the right decision. With many of the medical professionals who would normally staff the intensive care unit sidelined for continuous monitoring, it is in the best interest of the hospital employees, nurses, physicians and the community to give the hospital an opportunity to prepare for whatever comes next. Throughout this situation, we have collaborated at every level — the hospital, CDC, Texas Department of State Health Services, Dallas County and the City of Dallas Mayor’s office. Our collaboration will continue, and we will share what we have learned so that all health systems around the country are better prepared to meet this global health crisis.”
I just got word that any new Ebola patients in Texas will be taken to either UT Southwestern or UTMB in Galveston.
We should take them to Gitmo or leave them in Dallas. At some point we have to consider the nuclear option.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Official says Dallas hospital staff had no Ebola training: <a href="http://t.co/NLKi3z2JCz">http://t.co/NLKi3z2JCz</a></p>— World News Tonight (@WNTonight) <a href="https://twitter.com/WNTonight/status/522839507725336576">October 16, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
FYI- if you guys have any Ebola-related questions, I can pass them to my friend, Dr. Heather Lander, who is an expert. She also has a blog & twitter feed & works at UTMB. http://www.pathogenperspectives.com/ https://twitter.com/PathogenPhD
I can't say I don't agree with them. Not mocking them, but criticising, yes. Some medical doctors deserve scrutiny. In fact, most should welcome scrutiny. Obviously, those that were in the chain of commands screwed the pooch royally with this one. All the way up the whole friggin chain. Hindsight is 20/20, but once it was confirmed Ebola, the patient never should have stayed at that hospital. The CDC should have had a team on the ground. That hospital's staff of physicians and other decision makers should have realized full and well they were in over their heads, and let the government know. A lot of this could have been mitigated. It's Congress's job to figure out the facts and scrutinize them. The only thing that can be done is to learn from this. And unfortunately for Dallas, much like they were considered the scapegoat screw ups for the Kennedy situation, they will be the scapegoats for this situation. In reality, they were both screw ups all along the entire chain.
Of course they weren't. The book the hot zone (read it in high school over a decade ago) describes how the cdc deals with Ebola and viruses like it. No way the hospitals were equipped to handle an Ebola patient. CDC should have started training months ago not waited until it showed up in the US. They likely tried, so the blame may be on other areas of government.
also looks like they're backtracking on blaming the 2nd nurse now: "During the hearing CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said that one of the infected nurses did not violate any rules by boarding a commercial airliner the day before she was diagnosed with Ebola. Frieden said that while nurse Amber Vinson, 29, was in contact with Thomas Duncan, a Liberian man who died of Ebola, she had worn personal protective equipment and she did not need to have her movement restricted."
Is she on a panel sitting in front of the oversight committee or is she a TV doctor? This is who I saw on the panel being forced to listen to grandstanding politicians give speeches on TV. Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Robin Robinson, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Daniel Varga, the chief clinical officer for Texas Health Resources Dr. Luciana Borio Assistant Commissioner of FDA for Counterterrorism Policy Purpose?
I hope people (including me, clearly) give the 2nd nurse a break now that we have more of the full story. Still super unfortunate. Good news out of Connecticut. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>No <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ebola?src=hash">#Ebola</a> in Connecticut. Initial results on patient are negative. <a href="https://twitter.com/connecticutmag">@connecticutmag</a></p>— Erik Ofgang (@erikofgang) <a href="https://twitter.com/erikofgang/status/522861060143861760">October 16, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
