Dallas officials Wednesday defended the protocols used to care for an Ebola patient after a second health care worker was diagnosed with the virus early Thursday.
But Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told reporters early Wednesday, “It may get worse before it gets better.”
A female health care worker who treated Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital is now in isolation at the facility.
Dallas officials said she lived alone in a Dallas area apartment complex, parts of which have already been decontaminated.
At an early morning press conference in Dallas, officials denied having “an institutional problem” at the hospital, where critics complained there was a lack of proper protection provided for the workers who cared for Duncan, who died last week from Ebola.
Texas officials did not release the name of the second healthcare worker and said they are examining “every possible angle” to determine how she caught the virus from Duncan.
The first health care worker, Nina Pham, a 26-year-old nurse, has been upgraded to good condition, they said.
The CDC said Tuesday it is monitoring 125 people for Ebola, including 76 healthcare workers to cared for Duncan, 48 people who came into contact with Duncan and Pham’s boyfriend.
Dallas officials said even though Ebola has spread to a second healthcare worker, they are not going to quarantine the remaining healthcare workers who treated Duncan.
Instead, they will be allowed to monitor their own health for signs of fever, chills or other symptoms, as both healthcare workers did.
“We are not going to put protective orders on 75 healthcare workers,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said. “The system is working.”
But the hospital has only a handful of isolation units needed to patients to contract Ebola. Officials said they are working with the CDC on a plan to treat patients if more contract the virus.
