Second Dallas Hospital Worker Tested Positive for Ebola

Carrie Dedrick | Updated: Oct 15, 2014

Second Dallas Hospital Worker Tested Positive for Ebola

A second health care worker that treated Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has tested positive for the virus. The hospital employee, who has not yet been identified is now quarantined in an effort to prevent further spread of the disease. 

Authorities said that the Ebola patient reported her symptoms Tuesday and was put in isolation within 90 minutes. 

In a press conference Wednesday morning (Oct. 15), an official said that additional Ebola cases in Dallas are a “very real possibility. Seventy-five others are now being monitored for the illness. 

"We are preparing contingencies for more and that is a very real possibility," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. 

Additional measures are being taken in the area to prevent Ebola from spreading; authorities have decontaminated the patient’s apartment building and city workers have alerted neighborhood residents to be aware of symptoms. 

The CDC issued a statement, assuring civilians that the situation was under control. "While this is troubling news for the patient, the patient’s family and colleagues and the greater Dallas community, the CDC and the Texas Department of State Health Services remain confident that wider spread in the community can be prevented with proper public health measures including ongoing contact tracing, health monitoring among those known to have been in contact with the index patient and immediate isolations if symptoms develop," the CDC said.

Publication date: October 15, 2014



Second Dallas Hospital Worker Tested Positive for Ebola