2nd Texas Health Worker Tests Positive for Ebola

(New York Times) — Health officials authorities in Texas said on Wednesday that a second health care worker involved in the treatment of a patient who died of the Ebola virus had tested positive for the disease after developing a fever.

The worker, who was not identified by name, had been “among those who took care of Thomas Eric Duncan after he was diagnosed with Ebola,” at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, a statement from the Texas Department of State Health Services said.

Mr. Duncan, a citizen of Liberia, one of the three West African nations most stricken with the disease, died a week ago. The World Health Organization in Geneva said Tuesday that almost 4,500 people had died of the virus, most of them in West Africa, where the mortality rate had risen to 70 percent of people infected with the illness from 50 percent.

The total number of people being monitored is now 125, health officials said, including 48 who have been watched for more than two weeks after coming into contact with Mr. Duncan before he was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital on Sept. 28.

One nurse at the hospital, Nina Pham, 26, who also helped look after Mr. Duncan, is already being treated for Ebola. On Tuesday, a nurses’ union released a statement, which it said had been composed by Presbyterian Hospital nurses, denouncing what it called “confusion and frequently changing policies and protocols,” inadequate protection against contamination and insufficient training.

Health officials had warned since Ms. Pham was diagnosed that more health workers could be infected. “It’s possible we will see other people become ill,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Protection, said Tuesday at a news conference.

Texas officials said in the statement that the second health care worker reported a fever on Tuesday and was immediately isolated at the hospital.

Initial tests on the patient were carried out late Tuesday at the state public health laboratory in Austin, Tex., the statement said, adding that “confirmatory testing on a separate specimen will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.”

“Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored,” the statement said, adding that the patient had been placed in isolation.

The news came a day after health officials said they were now monitoring daily 76 health care workers at Presbyterian Hospital who treated or cleaned up after Mr. Duncan or might have handled blood specimens from the time he was admitted to the hospital on Sept. 28 to his death last Wednesday.

An additional 48 people were already being watched because they had possible contact with Mr. Duncan before he was hospitalized. One contact of Ms. Pham was also being monitored. The total under observation is now 125.

In a separate statement, the C.D.C. said it was conducting tests of its own to confirm the infection. “In addition, C.D.C. has interviewed the patient to identify any contacts or potential exposures in the community,” it said. “As we have said before, because of our ongoing investigation, it is not unexpected that there would be additional exposures.”

The agency also noted that “an additional health care worker testing positive for Ebola is a serious concern and the C.D.C. has already taken active steps to minimize the risk to health care workers and the patient.”

The statement came a day after Dr. Frieden said that the agency planned a more robust response to any future Ebola cases in American hospitals. For the first time, he said that quicker and more concerted action by the agency might have prevented Ms. Pham from becoming infected.

The C.D.C. also announced on Tuesday a range of measures to respond to the outbreak. One decision was to send “an additional team to Dallas, including experts who successfully controlled outbreaks of Ebola in Africa in the past two decades, including in health care settings,” the statement said.

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