The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced earlier Wednesday that the second health care worker — a nurse who had cared for the deceased Thomas Eric Duncan — flew from Cleveland to Dallas on Monday, the day before she got sick with an Ebola infection.
WFAA Dallas News 8 is reporting that Amber Vinson, age 29, is the second nurse infected with Ebola at Texas Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. WFAA is also reporting that she flew on the aircraft from Cleveland to Dallas with a low-grade fever of 99.5 °F.
“She should not have traveled on a commercial airline. The CDC guidance in this setting outlines the need for what is called controlled movement. That can include a charter plane, that can include a car, but it does not include public transport.”
— Tom Frieden, M.D. CDC Director
CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said the nurse shouldn’t have flown because she was one of the 76 nurses who had cared for Duncan. All of those nurse are under observation and self-monitoring. Frieden believes there was probably little risk of other passengers on her flight contracting Ebola, but said that the CDC is nevertheless reaching out to other passengers as a precaution.
“The second patient as well as the first had extensive contact with the patient [Duncan] when they were having substantial amounts of both vomiting and diarrhea,” Frieden said. “The assessment of the team is that in those first several days [of Duncan’s stay] at the hospital a variety of forms of personal protective equipment were used.”
The Centers for Disease Control says the second nurse was a passenger on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143, which flew from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth on Monday, October 13, 2014. She was admitted to the hospital the next day on Tuesday, October 14, 2014, and news of her Ebola illnes hit the national media about 4:00 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, October 15, 2014.
According to Frontier Airlines, Vinson flew from Dallas to Cleveland on October 10, 2014 on Flight 1142.
Frontier Airlines reports the aircraft that flew from Cleveland to Dalls stayed at DFW International Airport overnight while it was cleaned. It flew without passengers back to Cleveland and was cleaned again.
WFAA Second Ebola nurse traveled on plane with low-grade fever
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