Ebola Outbreak: CDC Says Dallas Nurse Amber Vinson Is Being Transported to Atlanta Hospital for Treatment
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a press conference Wednesday to address the second confirmed case of Ebola in the United States. Amber Vinson, the second nurse to contract the virus at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas while caring for Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, will be transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
Sylvia Matthews Burwell, secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, recognized the service of the nurses who have contracted the Ebola virus while caring for Duncan who died on Oct. 8, 11 days after he was admitted into an isolation unit at the hospital.
"Patients being treated at Texas Presbyterian Hospital will be transported to Emory's specialized unit sometime later today. We are redoubling our efforts and continuing to communicate," Burwell said. "We need to stop this epidemic at its source in West Africa."
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CDC Director Dr. Tom Frienden said Vinson is ill but clinically stable.
"She was rapidly isolated, tested, and the presumptive test was positive. She will be moved to Emory Hospital later today, while fellow nurse Nina Pham, who is improving, will remain at Texas Health Presbyterian. Emory Hospital has a specific Ebola unit that successfully treated two patients, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol," he said.
Vinson was in contact with three people before she was admitted into the hospital's isolation unit; and 75 other nurses who cared for Duncan are continuing to monitor their temperatures and symptoms.
The CDC also confirmed Wednesday that Vinson was a passenger on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143, which flew from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth on Monday — the day before she reported symptoms. The CDC is contacting all 132 passengers as a precaution and is asking them to call 1-800-CDC-INFO.
Heading efforts to prepare hospitals to take care of any future Ebola patients, the CDC is providing experienced healthcare workers who will assist with nurses and doctors' protective gear. Nurses from Emory have also been dispatched and are doing peer-to-peer training.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has issued a statement calling the disease a "formidable foe" and promising to do all he can to help protect the people of the state.
Vinson flew from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth on Monday on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143, which the CDC said she should not have done; she reported her fever on Tuesday and was put into an isolation unit at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Mayor Mike Rawlings confirmed that Vinson lived alone in her apartment at Village Bend East in Dallas; crews have already been dispatched to clean out the home and 911 calls were made early this morning to those who live in the apartment complex.
"We rallied together and we decided that we needed to move quickly like we did Sunday morning," Rawlings said. "The only way we are going to beat this is person by person, moment by moment, detail by detail. It may get worse before it gets better, but it will get better."
Perry also assured the public that "state and federal management of this issue is tightly coordinated."
"This is the first time that our nation has had to deal with a threat such as this," Perry added. "Everyone is working on this challenge — from the medical professionals at the bedside to the public officials addressing containment of the infection — is working to end the threat posed by this disease. These individuals are keeping the health and safety of Texans and the needs of the patients as their most critical tasks. Every relevant agency at the local, state and national levels is working to support these individuals."
"I have great faith that we will succeed in this important mission; once we have put it behind us, we will be the stronger for it and more prepared to meet the kinds of challenges that we as Americans are uniquely prepared to face," Perry concluded.
