Ebola Update and Frontier Flight 1143 Alert

EBOLA ALERT : The second healthcare worker who tested positive for Ebola last night flew by air October 13th, the day before she reported symptoms, as reported by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in a release within the last hour. She flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth. The CDC is asking all 132 passangers on the flight to call 1 800-CDC INFO (1 800-232-4636). Passengers will be monitored for symptoms and interviewed about the flight. According to the crew, the healthcare flight 1143. Frontier is working closely with CDC to identify all passengers. ~~~~~ Frontier Airlines issued the following statement : “At approximately 1:00 a.m. MT on October 15, Frontier was notified by the CDC that a customer traveling on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth on Oct. 13 has since tested positive for the Ebola virus. The flight landed in Dallas/ Fort Worth at 8:16 p.m. local and remained overnight at the airport having completed its flying for the day at which point the aircraft received a thorough cleaning per our normal procedures which is consistent with CDC guidelines prior to returning to service the next day. It was also cleaned again in Cleveland last night. Previously the customer had traveled from Dallas Fort Worth to Cleveland on Frontier flight 1142 on October 10." A later Frontier statement said that the plane that made up Flight 1143 is now being held in Cleveland for additional cleaning. ~~~~~ The second health worker diagnosed with Ebola was identified by Frontier Airlines as Amber Jay Vinson, 29, but this has not been confirmed by the Dallas hospital or the CDC. The patient has been isolated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, which has become the epicenter of the disease in the United States. Health officials said the worker was among those who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed in the US with Ebola. The CDC said it still doesn't know how the first health worker, a nurse, became infected. But the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said "an additional health care worker testing positive for Ebola is a serious concern." Anthony Fauci, director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said on MSNBC Wednesday : "Regardless of the reason, [it] is not acceptable. It shouldn't have happened." The woman was monitoring herself for symptoms, according to Dallas officials. She reported a fever Tuesday. She was in isolation within 90 minutes. Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer for Texas Health Resources, the operator of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, said they are reviewing every aspect of the use and disposal of personal protection equipment and infection control in the hospital." Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said he wished the agency had deployed a team of infectious-disease specialists to Dallas on the day Duncan was diagnosed. He said it might have prevented a nurse that treated him from contracting the disease, and that the agency will send a rapid response team to any US hospital that diagnoses another Ebola patient. Frieden also outlined a series of steps designed to stop the spread of Ebola in the US, including increased training for health care workers and changes at the Dallas hospital aimed at minimizing the risk of further infections. Meanwhile, WHO said the death rate in the outbreak has risen to 70%, and it has killed nearly 4,500 people, most of them in West Africa. The previous mortality rate was about 50%. ~~~~~ Meanwhile, the head of the UN mission for Ebola response, Anthony Banbury, told the UN Security Council that the world must meet critical goals by December 1 "or face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we don't have a plan." By that date, Banbury said 70% of infected peoole should be in treatment and 70% of Ebola burials should occur without contamination. He said he is "deeply, deeply worried" that current efforts will fall short. Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday that 16 of its staff members have been infected with Ebola and that nine have died. These numbers highlight the high risk of infection faced by those caring for Ebola patients, even at well-equipped and properly staffed treatment centers. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the one thing not being done by the CDC and its director is the strategic use of quarantine. Neither is quarantine being suggested by President Obama, who predictably blamed others when he said yesterday that "the world is not doing enough" to fight the Ebola outbreak, suggesting he will begin pressuring other world leaders to do more. If the CDC or President Obama bothered to ask the American public what to do, they would hear that a large majority of Americans now say they're in favor of restricting entry to the United States to people from countries hardest-hit by the Ebola virus. The new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds 67% of respondents support restricted entry; 29% opposed the travel curbs on those arriving from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where 4,000 people have died from the hemorrhagic fever, and 91% of adults in the survey said they want "stricter screening of people entering the United States who have been in African countries affected by the outbreak." The survey also found 33% think the United States is doing all it reasonably can do to try to prevent further cases of Ebola here, while 64% say it should do more. In this regard, the US government has awarded roughly 13,500 visas to people in the three afflicted countries. Each year, some 190,000 people from the 16 countries experiencing the outbreak visit the United States, and roughly 40,000 people from the region are given green cards, The Daily Caller reports. ~~ I have a few questions for the CDC and President Obama : *Why was this Dallas hospital healthworker allowed to fly on a commercial flight while she was being monitored because potentially exposed to Ebola? *Why are not all people being monitored quarantined at home or in a hospital infectious disease isolation area and why are they not forbidden to take any form of public transportation? *Why are any visas for US entry being granted for anyone from West Africa and any other country where Ebola is active - or if already granted put on hold? *Why has air travel between West Africa and the US not yet been quarantined?