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  • Ebola Patient Amber Vinson Flew Across The Country Ahead Of Diagnosis

    On Wednesday new information was released about the second hospital worker to be infected with Ebola.

    The patient is named Amber Vinson, and it is believed she contracted the virus while treating Thomas Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Duncan was the first individual to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.

    Vinson becomes the second hospital worker confirmed as contracting Ebola via contact with the deceased 42-year-old Liberian man.

    The first person to contract the Ebola virus in the United States is a woman named Nina Pham.

    At present the entire hospital staff, a group of over 70 individiuals, is being closely monitored for symptoms.

    However, if recent reports are true, the problem may already have moved beyond Dallas, Texas.

    According to the Center for Disease Control, the 26-year-old flew to Dallas on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 from Cleveland, Ohio. All 132 passengers are being asked to contact medical officials immediately.

    The plane has since been decontaminated twice; once in Dallas and again in Cleveland.

    Frontier Airlines said in a statement, “The safety and security of our customers and employees is our primary concern. Frontier will continue to work closely with CDC and other governmental agencies to ensure proper protocols and procedures are being followed.”

    Vinson was confirmed by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings as living alone at The Green in the Village Apartments, located not too far from the hospital where she worked. Her apartment has since been decontaminated by a hazardous materials team.

    The most startling aspect of this information is that according to the CDC Vinson exhibited no signs of infection while on the flight from Cleveland. Therefore no one on the flight would have had any cause for concern.

    There are conflicting reports as to whether or not Vinson would have been contagious while flying.

    Even more baffling is how, following the close contact that hospital workers had with Duncan, employees were not more carefully monitored. If not cautioned against travel.

  • Texas Health Worker Contracted Ebola. Time To Panic?

    It is now being reported that a Texas healthcare worker may have contracted Ebola.

    The individual was exposed to Thomas Duncan, the first man to ever be diagnosed with the illness on American soil.

    Duncan passed away last week at the Dallas, Texas hospital where he’d been quarantined for nearly a week.

    At some point while working with Duncan, the health care worker became exposed to the virus.

    Preliminary results on Saturday showed that the healthcare worker tested positive for Ebola.

    There is still more testing to do as the Center of Disease Control is responsible for giving official confirmation.

    If the CDC confirms earlier testing, it will represent the first time Ebola has ever been contracted and transmitted in America.

    The individual was reportedly isolated immediately after they exhibited symptoms, though it’s not yet known how many people they came into contact with.

    At present officials are carefully monitoring anyone known to have been in contact with the unnamed medical worker.

    They admit that they are not surprised at the reality of someone developing the illness after being in close contact with Duncan.

    Said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, “We knew a second case could be a reality, and we’ve been preparing for this possibility.”

    Lakey also confirmed that the team in Dallas “is being broadened” in an effort to prevent Ebola from spreading any further.

    This news will no doubt increase the level of scrutiny being experienced by Texas Health Presbyterian, the hospital where Duncan was first rejected and later readmitted.

    The hospital was accused of negligence and bigotry after Duncan was initially released, despite already displaying symptoms of the Ebola virus.

    It was reported following his death that the 42-year-old man’s fever had reached 103 degrees during the visit that saw him sent home.

    Did this unfortunate error contribute to a second case? Speculation abounds.

    Much of it is tied to concerns that a failure to quarantine Duncan early on may now have endangered the lives of untold American citizens.

    In reality, America has the wealth and resources to deal with the Ebola virus.

    As unfortunate as this situation is, Ebola has only killed one individual and one only one other has been confirmed as contracting the illness. Compare this to the thousands currently being devastated by the ongoing pandemic in Africa.

  • Ebola Patient Thomas Duncan Dies: American Panic Over Illness Grows

    Thomas Eric Duncan, known as the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, passed away on Wednesday morning at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

    Hospital spokesman Wendell Watson said that the loss filled the medical staff with “profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment.”

    Duncan was diagnosed on September 28th, a little over a week after returning from Liberia.

    Though Thomas Duncan went to visit family, he unfortunate was caught up in the terrible Ebola epidemic that is responsible for thousands of deaths across parts of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, and Nigeria.

    New cases in the United States and Europe have sparked fears of an emerging pandemic.

    Duncan was able to arrive back in the United States and spend several days among other citizens before he checked into a Texas hospital.

    The news that a man was diagnosed with the deadly virus on U.S. soil and that dozens of others were at risk has increased the panic among Americans over the disease.

    Although Duncan’s death is a tragedy, it’s not confirmation of a pandemic.

    It’s important remember concern level relating to Ebola will be likely be determined by how both quarantined and monitored individuals who came into contact with Duncan fare.

    Though as many as 100 people have had contact with Thomas Duncan prior to his diagnosis, officials have only quarantined his immediate family. Others believed to have been in contact with the deceased Ebola patient are being carefully observed for the next few weeks.

    It is this, far more than Duncan’s unfortunate death, that will likely give officials an idea of the range of any potential threat.

    It’s very possible that persons who are quarantined and observed may not have contracted the illness after all.

    Before Americans begin to take one man’s sad death as confirmation of a worst-case-scenario, it’s important to remember to keep things in perspective.

    Ebola may be highly contagious, but it’s also a very fragile and highly containable disease.

    Americans should focus on vaccinating against more common and even FAR more deadly viruses already in our midst. Namely the flu.

    The flu kills tens of thousands of Americans each year, a fact that is often lost among the headlines about exotic, but far less deadly threats to citizens in the United States.