Update of first title due to new developments and additional comments how poor training, procedures and underequipped hospital let down patients and nurses in treatment of highly contagious and deadly ebola virus.
Replaced first title: Texas County Judge Leads Ebola Response ¶ 2nd Worker Diagnosed [Update]
A second medical assistant at Dallas Presbyterian hospital has been diagnosed with the Ebola virus. At today’s press conference, there were no feds present, Judge Jenkins left his re-election campaign to become point man in the Homeland Security response team for the Ebola crisis. Right! Compassion is not an element of correct procedures, what happened? Dallas denies a systemic failure, prayer to God for well being of these brave [young] workers. More to follow …
○ NEWS CNN: Second health care worker tests positive for Ebola at Dallas hospital
○ BREAKING NEWS CNN: Nurses’ union slams Texas hospital for lack of Ebola protocol
Ebola Response Puts Jenkins in Spotlight, Again
by Alexa Ura | Texas Tribune | Oct. 9, 2014 |In the days before Sept. 30, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins was in full re-election mode, seeking campaign money ahead of a fundraising deadline as he works to keep his post as the highest elected official in the county’s government.
Then, the first U.S. case of the deadly Ebola virus was confirmed at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
In an instant, Jenkins became the main public official leading on-the-ground emergency response efforts to contain the spread of the virus, which arrived in the U.S. months after it had begun ravaging several West African countries. Jenkins would steer the response locally working with the Dallas County health department, the Texas Department of State Health Services and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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As county judge, Jenkins has shown a penchant for pushing the envelope.Jenkins has been a vocal supporter and advocate of the Affordable Care Act and has urged Texas legislators to extend Medicaid benefits to cover impoverished Texans. When a West Nile virus outbreak threatened the Dallas community in 2012, he pushed for the controversial aerial spraying of pesticides to kill the mosquitoes spreading the virus, which federal officials said proved effective. And amid this summer’s influx of unaccompanied minors from Central America and Mexico to the state, Jenkins announced that Dallas County would volunteer facilities to house thousands of these children despite criticism from Republicans who said he never asked for community input on the proposal.
UPDATE: Texas nurse with Ebola had fever on airliner | Reuters |
Ebola – Data: Nigeria by Marie2
What’s shocking is that TX Presbyterian Hospital, TX public health agencies, and/or the CDC didn’t quarantine all those that treated Duncan. Freaking Nigeria did better than that. Based on this update, Amber Vinson, the second healthcare worker to be diagnosed with Ebola, will be transferred to a special bio-containment unit in Atlanta for care. The US has four units of the CDC’s highest calibre, wouldn’t be confident that Vinson sought medical attention at the first sign of a low-grade fever as Pham did. Still, within three to four days she likely put her own health at more risk than anyone else.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest is talking to reporters …
President holds a meeting with cabinet agencies coordinating the government’s Ebola response
Germany has seven hospitals with isolation chambers to biosafety level 4
More below the fold …
Treatment for Ebola victims in Germany at seven specialised hospitals, three patients are treated at three different locations: Hamburg, Frankfurt and Leipzig.
From Liberia to Leipzig: Ebola patient is treated in Germany
Staff | N24/dpa | Oct. 8, 2014 |After Frankfurt and Hamburg now Leipzig: A third patient who is ill with Ebola virus should be treated in Saxony. Previously, a suspect case was already been admitted in the hospital.
For the third time an Ebola patient is to be transported to Germany for treatment. The Klinikum St. Georg in Leipzig will hold the UN staff. He will be flown in from Liberia on Thursday morning, said the spokesman of the Saxon Ministry of Social Affairs, Ralph Schreiber. He thus confirmed information of the “Leipzig People’s Daily “.
Two previous Ebola sufferers had already been brought to Germany. A doctor from Uganda is currently in Frankfurt am Main on an epidemic station. An ill patients from Senegal was discharged well from a Hamburg hospital after five weeks of treatment.
St. Georg Leipzig is one of seven hospitals in Germany with a special isolation for infectious diseases. Six rooms at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine can be operated under the highest quarantine conditions.
The special isolation consists of special negative pressure rooms, which are hermetically sealed off and only accessible through several locks. In addition, the doors have magnetic locks and can not be opened simultaneously. Neither air nor sewage unfiltered access to the outside and all study materials will be completely decontaminated after use. “Our doctors and nurses are well prepared. Working in special isolation with the lock system is trained regularly and continuously take place hygiene training courses in order to provide patients with highly infectious diseases under quarantine optimally,” says Dr. Thomas Grünewald, senior physician at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases, Tropical Medicine and Nephrology at Klinikum St. Georg . “The Ebola patient is in each case cared for by a doctor and a nurse working in shifts around the clock in a protective suit.”
Deceased Leipzig Ebola patient was cremated on the South Cemetery
The in the early hours of Tuesday late in Leipzig Ebola patient was cremated. The body of the Sudanese UN official was burned in the crematorium on Tuesday night in the Südfriedhofs, said a spokesman for the city council. Referring now to proceed with the urn, the city is currently clarifying with the United Nations (UN) and the Foreign Office. Previously, the deceased had been disinfected and stored in a specially prepared coffin.
The 56-year-old had died in the night to Tuesday after five days of treatment in the special isolation of the Hospital of Saint George to Ebola. The detailed circumstances of death were not disclosed due to medical confidentiality and applicable personal protection rights. “We regret the death of the patient suffering from Ebola much and talk to family and friends of patients, our deepest sympathy. In spite of intensive medical care and the highest efforts of the doctors and nurses of death could not be prevented, “said hospital CEO Iris Minde.
Disinfection unit arrived – consumed 100 protective suits daily
On Monday, a not initially available autoclave had arrived in Leipzig hospital. With this special unit of contaminated hospital waste is processed so that it can be disposed of safely. “In recent days, at least 20 to 30 disposable gloves were changed in the treatment of patients per hour. In addition, up to 100 special protective suits were consumed per day. All materials used are classified as hazardous to biosafety level 4 [pdf] and be disposed of safely in accordance with the guidelines of the Robert Koch Institute, “it said from the hospital.
The St. George is one of seven hospitals in Germany with a special special isolation for infectious diseases. Six rooms of the hospital can be operated by its own account under the highest quarantine conditions. The station must be entered by an isolation lock, all employees who work in it, wear special suits that are changed several times a day. A danger for the other clinic staff as well as for the population did not exist, according to the hospital management.
