Ebola In Texas: Second Case Confirmed As Hospital Worker Tests Positive

A second case of Ebola has been confirmed after a Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital worker who had cared for recently-deceased Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan tested positive in a preliminary test on Saturday.

The Texas Department of State Health Services made the announcement in a statement early Sunday, adding that “confirmatory testing will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

“We knew a second case could be a reality, and we’ve been preparing for this possibility,” said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. “We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread.”

The health worker, who has not yet been identified, was infected while providing care to Duncan, the first confirmed case of Ebola in the United States. Duncan died last week.

According to the statement posted at the department’s web site, the “health care worker reported a low grade fever Friday night” and was promptly isolated and tested. Officials are currently investigating who else may have been at risk of exposure. However, individuals infected with Ebola are not contagious until symptoms appear.

The Ebola crisis arrived in the U.S. for the first time with Duncan, but has devastated Africa. According to the World Health Organization, there have been more than 8,300 cases of Ebola across five African countries, including Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Senegal. Over 4,000 have died have died of the disease.

The new case of Ebola in Texas is not the first transmission outside of Africa. A Spanish nurse, Teresa Romero, is in “serious, but stable” condition at a hospital in Madrid.

Those two cases are likely not the last. As the virus continues to ravage West African countries, aid workers have been helping in an attempt to stem the tide. Officials in their home countries warn that “spillover” may be inevitable.

“The big problem is in West Africa where the doubling rate is every four weeks and it really is going up and up, so it will not be surprising if we have spillover into this country,” Sally Davies, Britain’s Chief Medial Officer, told the BBC. “I would expect a handful of cases over the next few months.”

In the United States, new screening procedures for air passengers arriving from West Africa began this weekend in an attempt to minimize the possibilities of such a spread. According to The New York Times, only 77 out of 36,000 screened in Africa over the past two months were barred from boarding their flights, and none of those ended up having Ebola, which features symptoms similar to other infections like malaria.

When he arrived in the U.S. from Africa, Thomas Eric Duncan was not symptomatic, meaning he was also not contagious. But symptoms developed after a time and he was first denied help before being isolated and treated for Ebola. It was during that treatment that the health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital contracted the virus.

Duncan died on Wednesday, two days before the second case of Ebola in Texas became symptomatic. According to the WHO, the virus has an incubation period of anywhere from two to 21 days between infection and symptoms.