Two days after he was sent home from a Dallas hospital, the man who is the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States was seen vomiting on the ground outside an apartment complex as he was bundled into an ambulance.
The Dallas Ebola case, involving a man who flew back to the United States last month from Liberia, has prompted national concern over the potential for a wider spread of the deadly virus from West Africa, where at least 3,338 people have died in the worst outbreak on record.
U.S. health officials have said the country's healthcare system is well prepared to contain any spread of Ebola through careful tracking of people who had contact with the patient and appropriate care for those admitted to hospital.
The Dallas patient had initially sought treatment at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital late last Thursday and was sent home with antibiotics rather than being observed further, even though he told a nurse he had recently returned from West Africa. By Sunday, he needed an ambulance to return to the same hospital, where he was admitted.
A nurse asked about the travel as part of a triage checklist and was told about it. "Regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full teams. As a result, the full import of that information wasn't factored into the full decision making," Texas hospital official Mark Lester said.
Infectious disease experts said that time gap represented a critical missed opportunity that may have led others to be exposed to the virus.
At the apartment complex, Osmanovic said he met the man three times over the years when he was visiting his family. Most of the neighborhood is from Liberia, Somalia or Sudan. Osmanovic is from Bosnia.
The only sign on Wednesday of the family's presence was someone occasionally pulling back the white blinds to peek out into the parking lot. A security officer blocked the entrance to the complex, with instructions only to let residents in and out.
Dr. Christopher Perkins, Dallas County Health and Human Services Medical Director, said that of the 18 people who had been in contact, many were "close family members".
The children among them "did not have any symptoms and so the odds of them passing on any sort of virus is very low", said Mike Miles, Dallas Independent School District superintendent.
Miles said the four different schools they attended would be staffed with additional health professionals and classes would remain in session.
Texas officials said health workers who took care of the patient had so far tested negative for the virus and there were no other suspected cases in the state. Texas Governor Rick Perry told a news conference he was confident the virus would be contained, as did other officials.
While past outbreaks of Ebola killed as many as 90 percent of victims, the current epidemic's fatality rate has averaged about 50 percent in West AfricaThe Dallas patient had initially sought treatment at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital late last Thursday and was sent home with antibiotics rather than being observed further, even though he told a nurse he had recently returned from West Africa. By Sunday, he needed an ambulance to return to the same hospital, where he was admitted.
A nurse asked about the travel as part of a triage checklist and was told about it. "Regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full teams. As a result, the full import of that information wasn't factored into the full decision making," Texas hospital official Mark Lester said.
Infectious disease experts said that time gap represented a critical missed opportunity that may have led others to be exposed to the virus.
At the apartment complex, Osmanovic said he met the man three times over the years when he was visiting his family. Most of the neighborhood is from Liberia, Somalia or Sudan. Osmanovic is from Bosnia.
The only sign on Wednesday of the family's presence was someone occasionally pulling back the white blinds to peek out into the parking lot. A security officer blocked the entrance to the complex, with instructions only to let residents in and out.
Dr. Christopher Perkins, Dallas County Health and Human Services Medical Director, said that of the 18 people who had been in contact, many were "close family members".
The children among them "did not have any symptoms and so the odds of them passing on any sort of virus is very low", said Mike Miles, Dallas Independent School District superintendent.
Miles said the four different schools they attended would be staffed with additional health professionals and classes would remain in session.
Texas officials said health workers who took care of the patient had so far tested negative for the virus and there were no other suspected cases in the state. Texas Governor Rick Perry told a news conference he was confident the virus would be contained, as did other officials.
While past outbreaks of Ebola killed as many as 90 percent of victims, the current epidemic's fatality rate has averaged about 50 percent in West Africa.
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