Live blogging.

Dr. Tom Frieden talking.

Don’t say “hand in glove!”

What the are doing in Dallas:

1) Site manager on the site in Dallas every hour of the day, checking protective gear use.

2) Enhanced training, including by experienced nurses with Ebola experience.

3) Limit number of care staff so they can be more expert.

Have been hearing concern from health care workers everywhere, working to minimize concerns.

Working to prepare all nurses and docs in all ER’s to ID Ebola, asking “where have you been in the past month/21 days”

Infections more likely to spread from someone not diagnosed.

Establish CDC response team to arrive within hours to any site where Ebola pops up. Equipment, management, expertise. I think most people thought they already had that but I guess not. They’ll assist in all aspects.

Also, for training, ramping up webinars, etc.

DALLAS CONTACT STATUS

Nurse remains in stable condition. Not severely ill now.

Index had 48 contacts, past 14 days, 2/3rds of risk period, highest risk period passed, decreasing likely that they will develop.

For the nurse only one contact. (because of active monitoring and not messing up)

Since nurse developed infection, possible other people who cared for Index patient could have been exposed… they are not in the 48.

ID’s 76 individuals in that group, all will be monitored daily for fever.

Relates his personal experience with thinking he might have Ebola; acknowledges freak out effect.

Now Dr. David Lakey, commissioner, TX dept of state health service.

14 days since first US case diagnosed.

Visited hosp. yesterday, visited CDC and state epi team, local health dept, and two emory nurses (brought in for training, checking system)

Reiterates 48 contacts past critical period.

One Patient 2 contact no symptoms.

Watching Nurses dog, the dog is fine.

Everyone remain calm. We’ll quickly announce any Ebola+ results. Those with self monitoring are all now on active monitoring.

QUESTOINS

NYT: How many of 76 were health care workers. Answer: all of them, all care takers for Index. (48 outside contacts, 76 or more possible in hosp contacts with him or his blood. still looking for more of those contacts)

ABC: Once a patient at some hosp is diagnosed, why not transfer them to a better facility. Ans: They might be.

NBC: Nurse had been certified in crit care 2 months ago. Is that enough experience. Ans: May not have mattered, we don’t normally treat Ebola (paraphrasing). Wish we had our response team we later thought of in place first. But from now on we’ll do that.

PHONE Question: CNBC: are you concerned about health care workers being concerned that they won’t come to work. Ans: we are concerned about htat, and about patients avoiding hospitals or clinics. We are trying to spread more knowledge about what to not worry about while at the same time doing a better safer job.

PHONE CNN. Clarify the 48 are unlikely to get Ebola. Ans: Yes, most cases would have happened by now, 21 days is on the safe side.

Newsweek: What has CDC learned from W. Africa from orgs like Doctors without borders. Ans: We work closely with them. African environment and US environment are different.

PHONE: CBS Dallas: Have you identified the breach in protocol. Ans: No. We review everything that occurred, nurse has helped a lot with this. We don’t always know what happened. Asks Lakey if he has ifo. Lakey: Have not identified a specific error. Looking closely.

So they don’t know. SO maybe there wasn’t one!

TIME: you wonder if you should have sent a team originally. Why? Ans: We did send a team, epis, to help with tracing, etc. We could have in retrospect sent a bigger more robust team and been more involved with hospital. Ebola is unfamiliar. Hospitals may even do unsafe things like using extra layers of protective equipment.

Phone question: inre 4 hospticals specialized with biocontainment. Why are there only four of them. If you transferred a patient there, how would it happen. Ans: The hosp with specialized facilities were created for totally unknown much scarier diseases that don’t exist yet. Ebola isn’t that bad if you do it right. Transporting is easy.

UNS: Some recover, some die, why? ans: We are not sure. Being healthy going in is better. Standard care makes a huge diff, doubles survivorship. Fluid balance. Also experimental treatments may or may not help.

Last question: Atlanta jour. cont: To what degree has team been sent at emory, has that become the model. Ans: Nebraska and emory have sound protocols, some are on site in Dallas.

Asks Lakey if he has concluding remarks. He says some stuff about how they are doing everything they can do.

Frieden final remarks:

1 we are focusing on supporting patient and hosp. in Dallas with robust expert team.

2 icreasing education and info to health care workers around the us

2.5 making a team to go anywhere needed within hours if there is another case.

3 working on contact tracing.

That concludes this liveblogging. Thank you very much you may return to your homes.

Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:

In Search of Sungudogo by Greg Laden, now in Kindle or Paperback
*Please note:
Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.