8 October 2014 Last updated at 13:42 ET
US Ebola patient Thomas Duncan dies in hospital

The first person to be diagnosed with Ebola within the US has died, Texas hospital officials have said.

Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, who caught the virus in his native Liberia, was being kept in isolation in a Dallas hospital and receiving experimental drugs.

Earlier the US announced new screening measures at entry points to check travellers for symptoms of the virus.

It has killed 3,865 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, in the worst Ebola outbreak yet.

"It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51 am," a spokesman said in a statement.

The news came shortly after US Secretary of State John Kerry urged all nations to boost their response to combat the virus.

"More countries can and must step up," he said in a joint press conference with his British counterpart Philip Hammond.

The US has pledged as many as 4,000 troops to the region, while the UK is sending 750 military personnel to Sierra Leone.

Duncan, who worked as a driver for a courier company, tested positive in Dallas, Texas, on 30 September, 10 days after arriving on a flight from Monrovia via Brussels.

He become ill a few days after arriving in the US but after going to hospital and telling them he had been to Liberia he was sent home with antibiotics.

Four days later, he was placed in isolation but his condition continued to worsen and this week he was given an experimental drug.

Ten people he came into contact with are being monitored for symptoms.

Following Duncan's diagnosis, the first case of contagion outside that continent was confirmed in Spain, where a nurse who treated an Ebola victim in Madrid contracted the virus herself.

Teresa Romero, is the first person known to have contracted the deadly virus outside West Africa.

She had treated two Spanish missionaries who later died from Ebola.

In other developments:

tThe World Bank has warned that the economic cost of the virus could exceed $32bn (£20bn)
the head of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Sierra Leone says the rest of the world is not doing enough
the US orders agents at airports and other ports to take temperatures and question passengers at five US airports
infected journalist Ashoka Mukpo in Nebraska, US, is to receive blood from Ebola survivor Kent Brantley
While Duncan was the first person to be diagnosed within the US, three American aid workers and a photojournalist contracted the virus in Liberia. Three have recovered.

Ebola spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of someone who has the virus and the only way to stop an outbreak is to isolate those who are infected.

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The first person to be diagnosed with Ebola within the US has died, Texas hospital officials have said.

Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, who caught the virus in his native Liberia, was being kept in isolation in a Dallas hospital and receiving experimental drugs.

Earlier the US announced new screening measures at entry points to check travellers for symptoms of the virus.

It has killed 3,865 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, in the worst Ebola outbreak yet.

"It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51 am," a spokesman said in a statement.

The news came shortly after US Secretary of State John Kerry urged all nations to boost their response to combat the virus.

"More countries can and must step up," he said in a joint press conference with his British counterpart Philip Hammond.

Jump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.Advertisement
"Ebola is an urgent global crisis that demands an urgent global response."
The US has pledged as many as 4,000 troops to the region, while the UK is sending 750 military personnel to Sierra Leone.

Duncan, who worked as a driver for a courier company, tested positive in Dallas, Texas, on 30 September, 10 days after arriving on a flight from Monrovia via Brussels.

He become ill a few days after arriving in the US but after going to hospital and telling them he had been to Liberia he was sent home with antibiotics.

Four days later, he was placed in isolation but his condition continued to worsen and this week he was given an experimental drug.

Ten people he came into contact with are being monitored for symptoms.

Following Duncan's diagnosis, the first case of contagion outside that continent was confirmed in Spain, where a nurse who treated an Ebola victim in Madrid contracted the virus herself.

Spanish nurse Teresa Romero Ramos is in quarantine after being infected in Madrid
Teresa Romero, is the first person known to have contracted the deadly virus outside West Africa.

She had treated two Spanish missionaries who later died from Ebola.

In other developments:

tThe World Bank has warned that the economic cost of the virus could exceed $32bn (£20bn)

the head of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Sierra Leone says the rest of the world is not doing enough
the US orders agents at airports and other ports to take temperatures and question passengers at five US airports
infected journalist Ashoka Mukpo in Nebraska, US, is to receive blood from Ebola survivor Kent Brantley
While Duncan was the first person to be diagnosed within the US, three American aid workers and a photojournalist contracted the virus in Liberia. Three have recovered.

Ebola spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of someone who has the virus and the only way to stop an outbreak is to isolate those who are infected.

Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
Spread by body fluids, such as blood and saliva
Fatality rate can reach 90% - but current outbreak has mortality rate of about 70%
Incubation period is two to 21 days
There is no proven vaccine or cure
Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
Fruit bats, a delicacy for some West Africans, are considered to be virus's natural host

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29543956#

Basically only with the GOP/TPers, oskar ~ they are creating and spewing horror scenarios ~ including try to hold the CDC responsible, whose budget they slashed over the past few years ~ Ebola is a horrible disease, but I understand you must come in contact with bodily fluids of an infected person to be at risk ~ urine, saliva, blood, etc ~ it is NOT air-borne like so many other communicable diseases ~

Sooz

still waiting for the killer bees.

if Americans weren't panicked about something, they wouldn't be Americans.

I have a childhood friend who is a rabid right winger (not sure what went wrong) but she is trying to get people riled up thinking that ebola was brought here by the left to make universal single payer insurance a necessity.

Assuming such a thing was true, you might want to ask her why universal single payer insurance suddenly becomes a good thing. It makes absolutely no sense to oppose it when the going is good and to then advocate for it once an epidemic hits. By then it's far too late to do anything about it.
Such an opinion merely indicates nothing but greed, selfishness and a flagrant lack of logic.

oskar, she hates the government and does not think universal single payer is in any way good.

She hates the government until she needs it. Ask her to not use any government roads for a month.

Al Jazeera, the anti-amerkican muslim communist news source, had a report a few days ago that Kentuckians just love their Kynect Healthcare but hate Obamacare with a passion.
The GOP goal in Kentucky is to make sure that Kentuckians don't find out that Kynect is the name of the Kentucky Obamacare exchange, quite successful I might add.
I believe polls are like 68% positive for Kynect and only 20% positive for Obamacare.
I love this country!!!

Kentucky is a country?

And before some smart ass replies with some smart ass remark let me be clear that stuff like in Kentucky can only happen in a country like the US.

And that's why I just love this country.

(I hope I can get this posted before Oskar wakes up from his midday nap...)

Shucks! Too late.

If Canadians were any more sedate they'd be comatose.

You might not have to wait long:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/08/us/bees-kill-man/index.html

Yep. It's started. I would love to know the profile of this person.

Ebola risk ruled out after firefighters respond to Birmingham airport sickness call in full hazmat gear

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A patient who got sick on a plane that landed on Thursday afternoon in Birmingham is not believed to be at risk for the Ebola virus, according to Birmingham health and fire officials.

The passenger got sick on a United Airlines flight and was suffering from nausea and vomiting, Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service Battalion Chief C.W. Mardis said. After the passenger's history was evaluated by Jefferson County Public Health Officer Dr. Mark Wilson, it was determined that he was not at risk of having the Ebola virus.

Birmingham firefighters arrived in hazardous material protective gear and set up a command post after a passenger on-board a flight that arrived at the Shuttlesworth-International Airport showed "signs of symptoms of Ebola." Assistant Chief Tim Love said the fire department wanted to take no chances after a recent Ebola death in Texas.

All passengers and crew were told to remain on the plane, but they have now been released. The airport is back to normal operations.

The flight, operated by ExpressJet, originated in Chicago and landed at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport around 3:24 p.m. There were 40 passengers on the plane. The flight was supposed to land in Birmingham; it wasn't rerouted.

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index ... cart_river

Reminds me of the idiots who joked about having bombs at airports following 09/11/01 ~ ~ Sooz

TPM LIVEWIRE
WATCH: This Is What Happens When You Joke About Having Ebola On An Airplane
By Catherine Thompson Published October 10, 2014, 8:02 AM EDT

Officials weren't laughing Wednesday when a man on a U.S. Airways flight bound for the Dominican Republic allegedly joked that he had Ebola.

The airline said in a statement that the flight from Philadelphia to Punta Cana was inspected upon arrival "due to a possible health issue on board," as quoted by ABC News. An airline spokesperson told the news outlet that another passenger alerted a flight attendant after overhearing the man say he had Ebola as the plane approached its destination.

The man allegedly said "I have Ebola, you are all screwed," according to Diario Libre, a Dominican newspaper.

A passenger on the flight recorded a video that showed officials in blue hazmat suits boarding the plane. "It's gonna look worse than it is," a flight attendant says on the video as she warns passengers that the officials would be boarding in protective gear.

"I think the man that has said this is an idiot, and I'll say that straight out, and if you hear me that's fine," the flight attendant added.

The video later shows a black man who appears to be led off the plane by the hazmat team while the rest of the passengers look on and take pictures with their cellphones.

"I ain't from Africa," the man can be heard saying.

Watch below:


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/us-airways-ebola-joke

So decontamination stations and isolation rooms will soon be coming to an airport near you? Ebola sniffing dogs? Flying has always been dangerous because of recirculated air. Think of all the airborne diseases you could be exposed to and it will put you off flying. I know a woman (and I think Kathy has experienced this too) who comes home from a cruise sick every time.

Ebola is not transmitted by air.

Ebola is not transmitted by air, but bodily fluids. You can theoretically get it from a sneeze or a surface a sneeze landed on.

Yea - I generally get sick on the cruise ship whether I fly to it or not. We drove to NYC to cruise to Bermuda and I got sick on that cruise, too. Sinus surgery is coming. LOL!!!!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-10/h ... la/5803250

I'm generally not a big fan of Mark Zuckerberg ~ but it's always nice to see people putting their $$$ to back up their words ~ and this is TERRIFIC! ~ Sooz

Zuckerberg, wife donate $25M to CDC for Ebola
Associated Press | 1 hr ago

NEW YORK — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are donating $25 million to the CDC Foundation to help address the Ebola epidemic.

The money will be used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Ebola response effort in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and elsewhere in the world where Ebola is a threat, the foundation said Tuesday.

The grant follows a $9 million donation made by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen last month. Zuckerberg and Chan are making the grant from their fund at the nonprofit Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/technology/zuckerberg-wife-donate-dollar25m-to-cdc-for-ebola/ar-AA6N4Sp

What amazes me is that not even one of these idiots' hundreds-if-not-thousands of ravings over the past 6 years has ever proven true ~ and yet millions still believe them ~ ~ Sooz

These 5 unhinged Ebola conspiracy theories expose the right’s anti-Obama delusions
Travis Gettys | 14 Oct 2014

The arrival of the Ebola virus in the U.S. has stirred up some festering fears among President Barack Obama’s most, ahem, fevered critics.

The deadly disease, which originated in Africa and is spread by direct contact with bodily fluids, apparently taps into some deep-rooted xenophobic and racial anxieties among right-wingers terrified they might catch a poop-related disease from black people.

Liberal guilt: While most (although not quite all) of Obama’s critics believe the president has some involvement, there is some disagreement whether Ebola arrived in the U.S. as a result of his negligence or malfeasance. Rush Limbaugh, for example, blames liberal guilt for the refusal to enact a travel ban from Ebola-stricken countries such as Liberia, which was founded by freed American slaves. “The danger we have now is that we elected people in positions of power and authority who think this or think like this in terms of this country being responsible, this country being to blame for things and it’s that kind of thinking that leads to opposition to shutting down airports from various countries,” Limbaugh said.

Redistribution scheme: Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, on the other hand, argues that Obama is purposefully allowing Ebola-infected travelers to enter the U.S. to eliminate American exceptionalism. “He wants us to be just like everybody else, and if Africa is suffering from Ebola, we ought to join the group and be suffering from it, too,” Schlafly said. Fox News contributor Dr. Keith Ablow agreed, saying he believes the president “may literally believe we should suffer along with less fortunate nations.” Religious right commentator Bryan Fischer wonders whether Obama intends to “redistribute” disease, just as conservatives say he intends to do with wealth. “He wants Ebola to come to the United States to punish America for being racist,” Fischer said.

World citizen: Critics such as Thomas Sowell and Pat Buchanan believe Obama has heeded the advice of health experts, who have said a travel ban would hinder aid, because he takes his role as a world citizen more seriously than his duties as U.S. president. “(There is) carnage over there, catastrophic disease passing through that country,” Buchanan said. “Why in heaven’s name wouldn’t you want to protect our country from what unhappily is happening over there?” Other conservatives fear Obama has placed U.S. troops — and their families — at risk by sending them to assist in African relief operations. “Is Obama criminally insane? A madman? An ignorant, delusional fool?” yelps Wayne Allan Root. “Or is he doing this purposely to overwhelm America’s economic system? Does it matter?”

Martial law: Some right-wing critics fear that Obama has purposefully orchestrated the Ebola outbreak as an excuse to do the sort of things they’ve been warning against all along. “Maybe the current administration needs this to happen so martial law can be declared, guns can be seized and the populace can be controlled,” speculates Morgan Brittany. “Once that happens … game over.” Her World Net Daily colleague, Mychal Massie, also fears Obama will use Ebola to impose “martial law to prevent a run on banks and to allow government-controlled media blackouts” just in time for the 2016 election – if the president doesn’t cancel it outright.

Facilitating terrorism: The most unhinged reaction so far comes, naturally, from the prolifically litigious birther gadfly Larry Klayman – who finds a new reason to overturn electoral results every time he opens a newspaper. The Judicial Watch founder recently filed a lawsuit accusing the president of “providing material support and aid to international terrorism and facilitating terrorism” for failing to enact a travel ban. “Obama has favored his African brothers over the rest of us by allowing them free entry into this country,” writes Klayman, who called for the immediate deportation of a president he insists was born a Muslim in Kenya. “With this new Ebola-gate scandal, Obama’s remaining in office becomes an issue of life and death for us all,” Klayman writes. “I do not advocate violence, and I want Obama to be taken alive to be deported and pay for his inadequacies under the rule of law. But he must be forced from office as soon as possible, before all is lost. We the people simply cannot, and should not, take it anymore.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/these-5-unhinged-ebola-conspiracy-theories-expose-the-rights-anti-obama-delusions/

Well Sid, Canadian citizens may be complacent, but our scientists are not! Bracketed comments and emphasis are mine.

Ebola outbreak: 1st human trials of Canadian vaccine start in U.S.

The first human clinical trials of a Canadian-developed Ebola vaccine, VSV-EBOV, begin in Maryland today to assess the vaccine's safety and determine the appropriate dosage to fight the virus that has killed more than 4,000 people, largely in West Africa, Health Minister Rona Ambrose has announced.

"We are able to share some very promising and hopeful news in the fight against Ebola," Ambrose said from Calgary.

She made the announcement at a joint news conference with chief public health officer Dr. Gregory Taylor, who spoke from Toronto.

Both stressed no individuals in Canada have ever been diagnosed with Ebola, and the risk of contracting the disease remains low in this country. One person in Belleville, Ont., is in isolation with Ebola-like symptoms, though the hospital described the case as "extremely low risk." Another person who had been in isolation in Ottawa since Sunday tested negative for the virus on Monday, health officials said.

The vaccine, which was developed by scientists at the Public Health Agency of Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, will be tested on 20 healthy volunteers at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md.

Studies in primates have shown the vaccine prevents infections, if given before exposure, and increases survival chances among those who get it quickly after exposure.

The results from the Phase 1 human trials will be completed by December, Ambrose said, although no specific date was given.
She said the vaccine has been shown to be "100 per cent effective" in preventing the spread of the Ebola virus when tested on animals.

"This provides hope because if the Canadian vaccine is shown to be safe and effective [in humans], it will stop this devastating outbreak," Ambrose said.

The Canadian government owns the intellectual property rights to the vaccine but has licensed the rights to a small U.S. biotech company called NewLink Genetics through its wholly owned subsidiary, BioProtection Systems, the public agency said.

The U.S. Defence Threat Reduction Agency, which is part of the U.S. Defence Department, is working with BioProtection Systems to further develop the product for use in humans.

Canada has supplied 20 vials of the experimental vaccine for use in the trial.

The public health agency said other Phase 1 clinical trials are being considered for Canada, Europe and Africa.

Taylor said if the results are successful, the next stage would be to test it in a larger human sample, including those
directly handling Ebola cases in West Africa.

"The health-care workers on the ground are the most likely target to do the next step," which could begin by the end of the year or early 2015, he said.

"Clearly if those studies show that it's effective in health-care workers, the world would go into mass production."

Canada announced in August that it would donate up to 1,000 doses of the vaccine to the World Health Organization as part of its contribution to the international effort to fight the virus, which has mainly affected Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, but the vaccine has yet to be shipped from the Winnipeg lab.

The public health agency blamed the delay on the WHO, but an article in the journal Science suggested a fight over intellectual property rights to the vaccine may be behind the delay. The article, published on the journal's website earlier this month, suggested NewLink Genetics was "worried about losing control over the development of the vaccine."
(Shades of the AIDs controversy over ownership of the credit for discovering the virus which led to delays to find a treatment/cure You can watch "And The Band Played On" to see the story of that)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ebola-outb ... -1.2796859

Using USian guinea pigs.

Since I never have, and never will, watch anything with "Fox News" in its name, I don't know anything about Shep Smith ~ but I give him credit and kudos for this mini-rant ~ ~ Sooz

Shep Smith shames Fox: Ebola panic is ‘not worth ratings … and we all need to stop it’
Arturo Garcia | 15 Oct 2014

Fox News host Shepard Smith scolded his network and other news colleagues on Wednesday, calling on them to stop inflaming fears of a “widespread panic” concerning potential Ebola cases in the U.S.

“We don’t have an outbreak,” Smith said. “We have two sick people from one dying man. And the rest of this should stop, because it’s not productive. And it’s not worth ratings, and it’s not worth politics, and we all need to stop it.”

Smith’s criticism appeared to be sparked by a report from correspondent Doug McKelway concerning Amber Vinson, the Texas health worker who was diagnosed with the virus after allegedly traveling with a fever of 99.5 degrees.

“The National Institute of Health says that that constitutes a fever,” McKelway said, before making a tremendous gaffe. “Although it is below the threshold for Obama — for Ebola fever of 100.4 degrees. That shouldn’t raise any more doubts in their minds, Shep, but it is, as you’re seeing from widespread panic across the country.”

“Oh my God,” Smith replied. “Doug, I appreciate it. But I think we both know there’s no widespread panic across the country. But I think we know that, and I think we know that if there is ‘widespread panic,’ it’s not based in fact, and it’s not based in reason.”

Smith’s commentary stands in sharp contrast to remarks by several of his colleagues and comes on the heels of a disagreement between two other hosts. Earlier this week, O’Reilly Factor host Bill O’Reilly called for Centers for Disease Control host Tom Frieden to resign, an assessment Greta Van Susteren slammed as being “dead wrong.”

Watch footage of Smith’s remarks, as posted online on Wednesday, below.


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/shep-smith-shames-fox-ebola-panic-is-not-worth-ratings-and-we-all-need-to-stop-it/

Kathy and I talked about this delay in using strict protocol in chat last night ~ in my view, that is a human failure, not a procedural failure ~ I'll post the "statement" that I emphasized/bolded below next ~ Sooz

Dallas Hospital Waited Three Days to Use Hazmat Suits
By Josh Marshall Published October 15, 2014, 10:54 PM EDT

We now seem to be getting a clearer idea of the breakdown of procedures at the Dallas hospital where one Ebola victim died and two infections of hospital staff took place. A nurses' union - which doesn't represent the Dallas nurses but was enlisted to speak on their behalf - released a statement today detailing a mix of sloppiness, uncertain and evolving practical and lack of proper equipment in the first days of Thomas Eric Duncan's stay at the hospital. But the more striking news - found in medical records obtained by the AP - is that there was apparently a critical two and one half days after Duncan was admitted to the hospital with a suspected case of Ebola but before his definitive diagnosis when hospital workers continued to operate without hazardous materials protective gear.

This news has been conveyed a few different ways.

According to a summary of the AP news in the Dallas Morning News ...


The AP story itself puts it slightly differently ...


I'm limited in this case by my lack of precise knowledge of standard hospital procedure. The emphasis in the two descriptions is different. The DMN makes it sound like they didn't change anything until the definitive diagnosis was established. The AP account makes it sound like they took precautions but not the full hazmat gear and evidently not the precautions they decided were necessary once they were certain they were dealing with an Ebola patient.

From my limited experience of these things gowns, glove and face shields sounds like standard protection when you're dealing with anyone who might have an infectious disease. For that matter, my dentist uses gloves and a face shield and as far as we know I don't have any infectious diseases. It's just standard procedure because there might be bleeding.

On the other hand, it is not clear to me that the current CDC guidelines for handling patients with Ebola require the use of hazmat suits in all cases. (See these guidelines here.) At least they do not appear to in all cases. And many different kinds of protective gear fall under this general category. I'd appreciate any information from our clinician readers on this point because it seems very important for evaluating how the hospital addressed the situation.

Apart from what procedures this hospital used, all the press reports I have seen have a significant lack of specificity about 'normal precautions' vs 'donning hazardous materials suits' when I believe there are a lot of very significant gradations between those two extremes. This isn't terribly surprising since they are mass readership news outlets that are going to write in laymen's rather than scientifically precise terms. At the same time, I'm not sure the CDC's recommended protocols were as strict as some of us might now be assuming they were or should have been. Put those two factors together and you have a significant fuzziness to the picture we're getting that makes it impossible, based on these press reports, to answer these questions with the precision we would like. For now that's just a caveat we should bear in mind through all of this.

Meanwhile, here's a passage from the AP article describing the conference call by nurses at the hospital complaining about the conditions in which they'd been forced to work ...


There's a lot of tendency right now to hyperventilate and claim people were idiots when we were not there as events unfolded and don't actually know all the details of what happened. But it is difficult to understand why fifty or sixty hours would have gone by when they were operating on the presumption Duncan had Ebola without taking more aggressive protective measures. This is not a case where they didn't realize yet that he might have Ebola. They already assumed he did and had moved him to a quarantined environment.

The nurses' account to this very non-expert ear sounds pretty awful. And it's consistent with the records' account which has the protective procedures waiting until the 30th when Duncan's diagnosis was confirmed.

We have many clinicians and epidemiologists among our readers. So I'd be interested to hear any informed takes on what we should make of this news.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/dallas-hospital-waited-three-days-to-use-hazmat-suits

This is the "statement" referred to in my above post ~ Sooz

Dallas Nurses Cite Sloppy Conditions, Changing Procedures in Ebola Case
By MATT SEDENSKY and MARTHA MENDOZA Published October 15, 2014, 10:03 PM EDT

DALLAS (AP) — A Liberian Ebola patient was left in an open area of a Dallas emergency room for hours, and nurses treating him worked without proper protective gear and faced constantly changing protocols, according to a statement released by the nation's largest nurses' union.

Among those nurses was Nina Pham, 26, who has been hospitalized since Friday after catching Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the virus in the U.S. He died last week.

Public-health authorities announced Wednesday that a second Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital health care worker had tested positive for Ebola, raising more questions about whether American hospitals and their staffs are adequately prepared to contain the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said some breach of protocol probably sickened Pham, but National Nurses United contends the protocols were either non-existent or changed constantly after Duncan arrived in the emergency room by ambulance on Sept. 28.

Medical records provided to The Associated Press by Duncan's family show that Pham helped care for him throughout his hospital stay, including the day he arrived in intensive care with diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, and the day before he died.

When Pham's mother learned she was caring for Duncan, she tried to reassure her that she would be safe.

Pham told her: "Mom, no. Don't worry about me," family friend Christina Tran told The Associated Press.

Duncan's medical records make numerous mentions of protective gear worn by hospital staff, and Pham herself notes wearing the gear in visits to Duncan's room. But there is no indication in the records of her first encounter with Duncan, on Sept. 29, that Pham donned any protective gear.

Deborah Burger of National Nurses United, who convened a conference call with reporters to relay what she said were concerns of nurses at the hospital, said they were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments and worried that their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for Duncan.

RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of Nurses United, said the statement came from "several" and "a few" nurses, but she refused repeated inquiries to state how many. She said the organization had vetted the claims, and that the nurses cited were in a position to know what had occurred at the hospital. She did not specify whether they were among the nurses caring for Duncan.

The nurses allege that his lab samples were allowed to travel through the hospital's pneumatic tubes, possibly risking contaminating of the specimen-delivery system. They also said that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling.

Wendell Watson, a Presbyterian spokesman, did not respond to specific claims by the nurses but said the hospital has not received similar complaints.

"Patient and employee safety is our greatest priority, and we take compliance very seriously," he said in a statement. He said the hospital would "review and respond to any concerns raised by our nurses and all employees."

The nurses' statement said they had to "interact with Mr. Duncan with whatever protective equipment was available," even as he produced "a lot of contagious fluids." Duncan's medical records underscore that concern. They also say nurses treating Duncan were also caring for other patients in the hospital and that, in the face of constantly shifting guidelines, they were allowed to follow whichever ones they chose.

When Ebola was suspected but unconfirmed, a doctor wrote that use of disposable shoe covers should also be considered. At that point, by all protocols, shoe covers should have been mandatory to prevent anyone from tracking contagious body fluids around the hospital.

A few days later, however, entries in the hospital charts suggest that protection was improving.

"RN entered room in Tyvek suits, triple gloves, triple boots, and respirator cap in place," a nurse wrote.

The Presbyterian nurses are not represented by Nurses United or any other union. DeMoro and Burger said the nurses claimed they had been warned by the hospital not to speak to reporters or they would be fired.

The AP has attempted since last week to contact dozens of individuals involved in Duncan's care. Those who responded to reporters' inquiries have so far been unwilling to speak.

David R. Wright, deputy regional administrator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which monitors patient safety and has the authority to withhold federal funding, said his agency is going to want to get all of the information the nurses provided.

"We can't talk about whether we're going to investigate or not, but we'd be interested in hearing that information," he said.

CDC officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Duncan first sought care at the hospital's ER late on Sept. 25 and was sent home the next morning. He was rushed by ambulance back to the hospital on Sept. 28. Unlike his first visit, mention of his recent arrival from Liberia immediately roused suspicion of an Ebola risk, records show.

The CDC said 76 staff members at the hospital could have been exposed to Duncan after his second ER visit. Another 48 people who may have had contact with him before he was isolated are being monitored. Pham remained hospitalized Tuesday in good condition and said in a statement that she was doing well.

The Rev. Jim Khoi, pastor at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Fort Worth, which Pham's family attends, said the 2010 Texas Christian University nursing school graduate appeared to be in good spirits when she spoke to her mother via video chat.

Pham's mother, Ngoc Pham, is "calm," Khoi said. "She trusts in God. And she asks for prayers."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dallas-nurses-cite-sloppy-conditions-in-ebola-case

I read an article this morning that the head of the CDC resigned and accepted responsibility for the procedural failures. They did NOT use Hazmat suits in Texas, but standard gear that they use for other purposes in treating patients who are contagious. They had very little training before handling the patient.

Dr. Gupta put one on and showed (using chocolate syrup) that he could smear it on an arm and his neck.

I'll try to find the article later........

EDIT: My bad. The article is about how he should resign. Article to follow with the other info.