The United States Must Think And Rethink Ebola Infection Control

The case of a Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola while caring for a dying Liberian patient shows that the US needs to rethink how it addresses infection control as an outbreak of the virus spreads beyond West Africa, a top health official said Monday. Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said health authorities are still investigating how the nurse became infected while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in an isolation ward at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Duncan died last week and the nurse is the first person to contract the virus on U.S. soil, taking concerns about containing its spread to new heights. She is “clinically stable,” Frieden said, and the CDC is monitoring others involved in Duncan’s care in case they show symptoms of the virus. “We have to rethink the way we address Ebola infection control. Even a single infection is unacceptable,” Frieden told reporters. “The care of Ebola is hard. We’re working to make it safer and easier.”