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After casting a wide net to assess 100 people who may have come in contact with the man who has Ebola, federal and Texas state officials have narrowed down the number to 50 people, 10 of whom are considered high risk, including the patient’s four family members who are quarantined in their apartment.
The patient, 42-year-old Thomas Eric Duncan, remains in serious but stable condition. Among the 50 are a number of at-risk hospital workers and staff. All individuals are doing well and have reported no symptoms so far, Texas health officials reported during an afternoon news conference Oct. 3.
Late in the day on Oct. 2, CDC issued an updated advisory for health care professionals on evaluating patients for Ebola, asking them to increase their vigilance in taking travel history; to isolate patients who fit the precautionary criteria for Ebola; and to immediately notify local and state health departments.
“We’ve been redoubling out efforts to sensitize health care providers on how to correctly identify and safely deal with Ebola patients,” said Dr. Beth P. Bell, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Meanwhile, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, which initially sent Mr. Duncan home with antibiotics, released more details about that encounter.
In an Oct. 2 statement, the hospital noted that physician and nursing workflows were separate in the electronic health records, such that “the travel history would not automatically appear in the physician’s standard workflow.”
On his first visit to the emergency department, Mr. Duncan presented with a temperature of 100.1° F, abdominal pain for 2 days, a sharp headache, and decreased urination, although no symptoms were severe, the hospital reported. He reported no nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Mr. Duncan also said that he had not been around any sick individuals and that he had been in Africa.
The hospital said that the travel history documentation has now been relocated “to a portion of the EHR that is part of both [nursing and physician] workflows. It also has been modified to specifically reference Ebola-endemic regions in Africa.”
Dr. Kristi L. Koenig, director of Center for Disaster Medical Sciences at University of California, Irvine, said that its important for physicians to be aware of infectious diseases worldwide. She urged her peers to be up to date and pay attention to credible authorities, so that they can rapidly identify and isolate potentially infected patients.
"You have to be prepared regardless of health care setting," Dr. Koenig, a national spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians, said in an interview.
In a paper, Dr. Koenig and colleagues list several actions that emergency physicians should take when treating febrile travelers and remind their peers that several factors, including the globalization of health care, climate change, and rapid international travel "means that microbial threat to the population have increased."
The number of Ebola cases in West Africa continues to grow, according to the latest information from the World Health Organization. A total of 7,470 confirmed cases and 3,431 deaths have been reported in in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.
Dr. Bell of the CDC said that a couple of Ebola vaccines are in early phases of human trials. “We’re working very hard to accelerate this, but we need to be sure that the vaccines are safe and effective. But this is a very high priority for us.”
Helpful Links:
Information for health-care workers
Latest outbreak information in West Africa
World Health Organization Ebola page
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
American College of Emergency Physicians
On Twitter @naseemmiller
After casting a wide net to assess 100 people who may have come in contact with the man who has Ebola, federal and Texas state officials have narrowed down the number to 50 people, 10 of whom are considered high risk, including the patient’s four family members who are quarantined in their apartment.
The patient, 42-year-old Thomas Eric Duncan, remains in serious but stable condition. Among the 50 are a number of at-risk hospital workers and staff. All individuals are doing well and have reported no symptoms so far, Texas health officials reported during an afternoon news conference Oct. 3.
Late in the day on Oct. 2, CDC issued an updated advisory for health care professionals on evaluating patients for Ebola, asking them to increase their vigilance in taking travel history; to isolate patients who fit the precautionary criteria for Ebola; and to immediately notify local and state health departments.
“We’ve been redoubling out efforts to sensitize health care providers on how to correctly identify and safely deal with Ebola patients,” said Dr. Beth P. Bell, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Meanwhile, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, which initially sent Mr. Duncan home with antibiotics, released more details about that encounter.
In an Oct. 2 statement, the hospital noted that physician and nursing workflows were separate in the electronic health records, such that “the travel history would not automatically appear in the physician’s standard workflow.”
On his first visit to the emergency department, Mr. Duncan presented with a temperature of 100.1° F, abdominal pain for 2 days, a sharp headache, and decreased urination, although no symptoms were severe, the hospital reported. He reported no nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Mr. Duncan also said that he had not been around any sick individuals and that he had been in Africa.
The hospital said that the travel history documentation has now been relocated “to a portion of the EHR that is part of both [nursing and physician] workflows. It also has been modified to specifically reference Ebola-endemic regions in Africa.”
Dr. Kristi L. Koenig, director of Center for Disaster Medical Sciences at University of California, Irvine, said that its important for physicians to be aware of infectious diseases worldwide. She urged her peers to be up to date and pay attention to credible authorities, so that they can rapidly identify and isolate potentially infected patients.
"You have to be prepared regardless of health care setting," Dr. Koenig, a national spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians, said in an interview.
In a paper, Dr. Koenig and colleagues list several actions that emergency physicians should take when treating febrile travelers and remind their peers that several factors, including the globalization of health care, climate change, and rapid international travel "means that microbial threat to the population have increased."
The number of Ebola cases in West Africa continues to grow, according to the latest information from the World Health Organization. A total of 7,470 confirmed cases and 3,431 deaths have been reported in in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.
Dr. Bell of the CDC said that a couple of Ebola vaccines are in early phases of human trials. “We’re working very hard to accelerate this, but we need to be sure that the vaccines are safe and effective. But this is a very high priority for us.”
Helpful Links:
Information for health-care workers
Latest outbreak information in West Africa
World Health Organization Ebola page
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
American College of Emergency Physicians
On Twitter @naseemmiller
After casting a wide net to assess 100 people who may have come in contact with the man who has Ebola, federal and Texas state officials have narrowed down the number to 50 people, 10 of whom are considered high risk, including the patient’s four family members who are quarantined in their apartment.
The patient, 42-year-old Thomas Eric Duncan, remains in serious but stable condition. Among the 50 are a number of at-risk hospital workers and staff. All individuals are doing well and have reported no symptoms so far, Texas health officials reported during an afternoon news conference Oct. 3.
Late in the day on Oct. 2, CDC issued an updated advisory for health care professionals on evaluating patients for Ebola, asking them to increase their vigilance in taking travel history; to isolate patients who fit the precautionary criteria for Ebola; and to immediately notify local and state health departments.
“We’ve been redoubling out efforts to sensitize health care providers on how to correctly identify and safely deal with Ebola patients,” said Dr. Beth P. Bell, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Meanwhile, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, which initially sent Mr. Duncan home with antibiotics, released more details about that encounter.
In an Oct. 2 statement, the hospital noted that physician and nursing workflows were separate in the electronic health records, such that “the travel history would not automatically appear in the physician’s standard workflow.”
On his first visit to the emergency department, Mr. Duncan presented with a temperature of 100.1° F, abdominal pain for 2 days, a sharp headache, and decreased urination, although no symptoms were severe, the hospital reported. He reported no nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Mr. Duncan also said that he had not been around any sick individuals and that he had been in Africa.
The hospital said that the travel history documentation has now been relocated “to a portion of the EHR that is part of both [nursing and physician] workflows. It also has been modified to specifically reference Ebola-endemic regions in Africa.”
Dr. Kristi L. Koenig, director of Center for Disaster Medical Sciences at University of California, Irvine, said that its important for physicians to be aware of infectious diseases worldwide. She urged her peers to be up to date and pay attention to credible authorities, so that they can rapidly identify and isolate potentially infected patients.
"You have to be prepared regardless of health care setting," Dr. Koenig, a national spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians, said in an interview.
In a paper, Dr. Koenig and colleagues list several actions that emergency physicians should take when treating febrile travelers and remind their peers that several factors, including the globalization of health care, climate change, and rapid international travel "means that microbial threat to the population have increased."
The number of Ebola cases in West Africa continues to grow, according to the latest information from the World Health Organization. A total of 7,470 confirmed cases and 3,431 deaths have been reported in in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization.
Dr. Bell of the CDC said that a couple of Ebola vaccines are in early phases of human trials. “We’re working very hard to accelerate this, but we need to be sure that the vaccines are safe and effective. But this is a very high priority for us.”
Helpful Links:
Information for health-care workers
Latest outbreak information in West Africa
World Health Organization Ebola page
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
American College of Emergency Physicians
On Twitter @naseemmiller
FROM A CDC TELEBRIEFING
