Protect Environmental workers move disposal barrels to a staging area outside the apartment of a health care worker who treated Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan and tested positive for the disease in Dallas.DALLAS – Federal health officials on Monday urged the nation’s hospitals to “think Ebola” and launched a review of procedures for treating infected patients, while the World Health Organization called the outbreak “the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times.”
In Texas, medical records showed that a 26-year-old nurse who contracted Ebola while caring for a dying Liberian man repeatedly visited his room from the day he was placed in intensive care until the day before he died.
Nurse Nina Pham was among about 70 hospital staffers who were involved in Thomas Eric Duncan’s care after he was hospitalized, according to the records. They drew his blood, put tubes down his throat and wiped up his diarrhea. They analyzed his urine and wiped saliva from his lips, even after he had lost consciousness.
Pham and other health care workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital wore protective gear, including gowns, gloves, masks and face shields — and sometimes full-body suits — when caring for Duncan, but Pham became the first person to contract the disease within the United States.
Her family told Dallas television station WFAA on Monday that she was the health care worker with Ebola. A rector at her family’s church, Hung Le, told The Associated Press that Pham’s mother told him Pham has the virus.