US health officials face questions over Ebola lapses

Terry Wade, in Dallas

US lawmakers prepared to question federal health officials on Thursday about their response to the appearance of Ebola on US soil after news that a nurse with the disease had taken a commercial flight heightened anxiety over its spread.

Shortly before the noon hearing, US news channel MSNBC reported that the first Texas nurse infected with Ebola after treating a Liberian man who died of the illness will be moved from Dallas to the National Institutes of Health outside Washington.

Dr Thomas Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, was scheduled to testify before a House of Representatives subcommittee, a day after the news emerged that a second Dallas nurse had become infected and had flown from Ohio to Texas.

That nurse, Amber Vinson, (29), had a slight fever when she took the Frontier Airlines flight Monday, a day before she was diagnosed with Ebola. Dr Frieden said on Wednesday that Ms Vinson should not have got on the plane, but a federal official later said she had contacted the CDC and was not prevented from boarding.

Dr Frieden, who said last month he had “no doubt we will stop this in its tracks in the United States”, will likely face tough questions from members of Congress over how two US healthcare workers became infected and one boarded a flight with 132 other passengers after being exposed to the virus.

At least two lawmakers have called for Dr Frieden's resignation. Others, including House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, urged travel restrictions on the countries hardest hit by Ebola. The disease has killed at least 4,400 people, predominantly in west Africa, and appeared in the United States last month.

Ms Vinson was the second nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to become infected after exposure to Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, who died on October 8th. She was transferred to Emory University Hospital for treatment on Wednesday night.

Another nurse, Nina Pham, (26), was diagnosed over the weekend and was treated at the Dallas hospital. MSNBC reported on Thursday that she was being moved to the NIH facility in Bethesda, Maryland. The infections of the health care workers raised concerns about how the Dallas facility handled the disease.

Rising public anxiety over the virus prompted President Barack Obama to cancel two days of political events just weeks before November 4th congressional elections that will help shape the remainder of his term.

In Ohio, where Ms Vinson had visited family members, two schools in the Cleveland suburb of Solon were closed on Thursday because an employee may have travelled on the same aeroplane as Ms Vinson, though on a different flight.

The Ohio health department said the CDC was sending staff to help coordinate efforts to contain the spread of Ebola.

Frontier Airlines said it had placed six crew members on paid leave for 21 days "out of an abundance of caution." Florida Governor Rick Scott asked the CDC to expand the reach of its contacts to people who flew on the same plane after nurse Amber Vinson's flight. The plane made a stop in Fort Lauderdale after Dallas.

Back in Texas, the Belton school district in central Texas said three schools were closed on Thursday because two students were on the same flight as the nurse.

A Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital representative was also scheduled to testify before the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Thursday.

The hospital has come under criticism after initially sending Duncan home last month, only to have him return with far worse symptoms days later. A nurses group criticized hospital protocols and procedures on Ebola after Duncan was admitted on September 28th.

Dallas’s chief political officer, county judge Clay Jenkins, put the blame on Thursday for Ms Vinson’s travel squarely on the CDC, saying hospital workers are heroes who don’t want to put anyone at risk. “These aren’t people that want to break the protocol. They just need to know what the protocols are,” he told MSNBC.

Ms Vinson was moved to Emory from Texas Health Presbyterian on Wednesday night to keep the Dallas facility ready for future cases of the virus, he said.

Dr Frieden said it was unlikely passengers who flew with Ms Vinson were infected because the nurse had not vomited or bled on the flight, but he said she should not have boarded the plane.

The virus, which also causes fever and diarrhea, is spread through direct contact with body fluids from an infected person.

A federal official said Wednesday Ms Vinson had told the CDC her temperature was 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit (37.5 Celsius), but “was not told not to fly” because that was below the CDC’s temperature threshold of 100.4 F (38 C).

One nurse who helped treat Pham came forward on Thursday to say the Dallas hospital was unprepared for the emergency and lacked proper protective gear.

Nurses were not briefed or prepared for Ebola, Briana Aguirre told NBC’s “Today” show, and no special precautions were taken when Duncan was admitted to the hospital.

“It was a total chaotic scene,” she said.

(Reuters)