A second healthcare worker at the Dallas hospital where Ebola patient Thomas Duncan was treated has tested positive for the virus, Texas health officials say.
The Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed that the worker had tested positive in a statement early Wednesday. It did not specify what position the worker held at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, though officials did say that the person was among those who provided care for Duncan, who died from the virus Oct. 8.
The statement said that the worker had reported a fever Tuesday and had been placed in isolation. Preliminary tests were run at the state public health lab in Austin and results came back at approximately midnight Wednesday. A separate test will be done at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The statement also said the health care worker, who wasn’t identified, was interviewed to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures and that others will be monitored. It added that the type of monitoring will depend on the nature of their interactions with the health care worker and the potential of exposure to the virus.
On Sunday, officials confirmed that 26-year-old nurse Nina Pham had tested positive for the virus. More than 70 people who may have had contact with Duncan at the hospital were being monitored. Officials have said they don’t know how Pham became infected. But the second case pointed to lapses beyond how one individual may have donned and removed personal protective garb.
News of the latest positive test comes one day after the largest U.S. nurses’ union charged that Duncan’ caregivers worked for days without proper protective gear and faced constantly changing protocols.
A statement from National Nurses United also says Thomas Eric Duncan was left in an open area of an emergency room for hours.
A spokesman for the group says nurses were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments. It’s said that the patient had explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting.
In a conference call with reporters executive director RoseAnn DeMoro says the allegations are based on revelations from “a few” nurses and that the claims were vetted.
The nurses also said that Duncan’s lab samples were allowed to travel through the hospital’s pneumatic tubes, opening the possibility of contaminating the specimen delivery system. The nurses also alleged that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling.
A hospital spokesman for told the Associated Press that the facility had not received similar complaints.
