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October 16, 2014

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ByEmilySchmall The Associated Press DALLAS The Ebola cri- sis in the U.S. took another alarming turn Wednesday with word that a second Dallas nurse caught the dis- ease from a patient and flew across the Midwest aboard an airliner the day before she fell ill, even though gov- ernment guidelines should have kept her off the plane. Amid growing concern, President Barack Obama canceled a campaign trip to address the outbreak and vowed that his admin- istration would respond in a "much more aggressive way" to Ebola cases in the United States. Though it was not clear how the nurse contracted the virus, the case repre- sented just the latest in- stance in which the disease that has ravaged one of the poorest corners of the earth — West Africa — also man- aged to find weak spots in one of the world's most ad- vanced medical systems. The second nurse was identified as 29-year-old Amber Joy Vinson. Medi- cal records provided to The Associated Press by Thomas Eric Duncan's family showed she inserted cathe- ters, drew blood and dealt with Duncan's body fluids. Duncan, who was diag- nosed with Ebola after com- ing to the U.S. from Liberia, died Oct. 8. Kent State University in Ohio, where three of Vin- son's relatives work, con- firmed she was the latest patient. Even though the nurse did not report having a fever un- til Tuesday, the day after she returned home, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said she should not have boarded a commercial flight. The nurse also knew be- fore heading home that an- other nurse, Nina Pham, had been diagnosed with Ebola, and she had a slightly elevated tempera- ture — 99.5 degrees, accord- ing to government officials. While in Cleveland, she was contacted by health officials and told that her health would need to be more closely monitored for Ebola, the CDC said. It was unclear whether she was told not to fly. From now on, CDC Di- rector Tom Frieden said, no one else involved in Dun- can's care will be allowed to travel "other than in a con- trolled environment." He cited guidelines that per- mit charter flights or travel by car but no public trans- portation. On its website, the CDC says all people with a risk of exposure to Ebola should restrict their travels — in- cluding by avoiding com- mercial flights — for 21 days. Ebola patients are not considered contagious until they have symptoms. Frie- den said it was unlikely that others on the plane were at risk because the nurse was not vomiting or bleeding. Even so, the CDC is alert- ing the 132 passengers who were aboard Frontier Air- lines Flight 1143 from Cleve- land to Dallas-Fort Worth on Monday "because of the proximity in time between the evening flight and first report of illness the follow- ing morning." Officials are asking passengers to call the health agency so they can be monitored. The nurse flew from Dallas to Cleveland on Oct. 10. Kent State said it was asking the workers related to Vinson to stay off campus for 21 days "out of an abun- dance of caution." Her Ebola diagnosis was confirmed Wednesday. The CDC's investigation suggests that health care workers were at highest risk from Sept. 28 to Sept. 30, the three days before Dun- can was diagnosed. Both nurses who contracted Eb- ola worked on those days and had extensive contact with him when he had vom- iting and diarrhea, Frieden said. Medical records indicate that the workers wore pro- tective equipment, includ- ing gowns, gloves and face shields during that time. The first mention in the re- cords that they wore hazmat suits was on Sept. 30. In his most urgent com- ments on the spread of the disease, Obama also warned that in an age of frequent travel, the dis- ease could spread globally if the world doesn't respond to the "raging epidemic in West Africa." The second nurse was to be transferred to a spe- cial bio-containment unit at Emory University Hospi- tal in Atlanta, where other Ebola patients have been treated successfully, Frie- den said. Pham will be monitored in Dallas to determine the best place for her care, Frie- den said. The CDC has acknowl- edged that the government was not aggressive enough in managing Ebola and containing the virus as it spread from an infected pa- tient to a nurse at a Dallas hospital. The second case may help health officials deter- mine where the infection- control breach is occurring and make practices safer for health workers everywhere. For example, if both health workers were in- volved in drawing Dun- can's blood, placing an in- travenous line or suctioning mucus when Duncan was on a breathing machine, that would be recognized as a particularly high-risk activity. It might also reveal which body fluids pose the greatest risk. At the Dallas apartment complex where the second nurse lives, emergency re- sponders in hazardous-ma- terials suits began decon- tamination work before dawn Wednesday. Police guarded the side- walk and red tape was tied around a tree to keep peo- ple out. Notices handed out to neighbors advised of the diagnosis. Officials said she lives alone with no pets. Ryan Fus, 24, who lives in the same building as the blocked-off apartment, said police knocked on his door before 6 a.m. to notify him and make sure he was all right. "It's a little scary. It's a lit- tle shocking that it's right near me," he said. Dallas city spokeswoman Sana Syed said a hazard- ous-materials crew cleaned common areas of the com- plex and that the state was sending a crew to clean the actual apartment. In all, public-health offi- cials are monitoring more than 100 people who might have been exposed to Ebola through Duncan — at least 76 of them at the hospital. DALLAS NURSE Second health worker tests positive for Ebola TONYDEJAK—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A Frontier Airlines employee wears gloves as she directs passengers where to go at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on Wednesday. Ohio health officials aren't sure how many people came into contact with a Texas nurse as she visited family in the Akron area days before being diagnosed with Ebola in Dallas. The Ohio Department of Health says she visited family from Oct. 8-13and flew Monday from Cleveland to Dallas. By Christopher Torchia The Associated Press JOHANNESBURG Some doc- tors in countries hit hardest by the deadly Ebola disease decline to operate on preg- nant women for fear the vi- rus could spread. Govern- ments face calls from fright- ened citizens to bar travel to and from afflicted nations. Meanwhile, the stakes get higher as more people get sick, highlighting a tricky balance between protecting people and preserving their rights in a global crisis. The world could impose more restrictions to ward off a disease that has over- whelmed several West Afri- can countries, and exposed shortcomings in medi- cal procedures in Texas and also Spain, where Eb- ola cases have been diag- nosed. Such measures can be legal, lawyers say, but the challenge is to ensure that quarantines, curbs on movement and other steps do not intrude too heavily on civil liberties. "People would rather do more than less, and the problem is that it becomes a slippery slope in terms of rights," said Paul Millus, a New York lawyer who han- dles civil rights and employ- ment issues. Already, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, where the Ebola outbreak has killed thousands, are try- ing to implement severe controls. Authorities have imposed curfews, lockdowns and roadblocks. They have or- dered a stop to traditional funeral rites that involve touching relatives' bod- ies. An entire battalion of troops in Sierra Leone is in quarantine, waiting to de- ploy on a regional mission to conflict-torn Somalia. In the United States, a second Texas health care worker has tested positive for the disease. Last week, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut signed an or- der giving the state's pub- lic health commissioner the ability to quarantine any- one believed to have been exposed to the Ebola virus. John Thomas, a professor at the Quinnipiac Univer- sity School of Law in Con- necticut, said the world will be dealing "more and more" with the possible conflict between health policies and civil liberties. "The tension here is how broadly to cast this protec- tive net," he said. Thomas cited "the positive model" of relatively effective quar- antines during the flu pan- demic that killed millions in the early 20th century, and, on the other hand, quarantines imposed "for no reason whatsoever" on people in the early days of the AIDS crisis. The World Health Orga- nization says West Africa could see up to 10,000 new Ebola cases a week within two months, dramatically up from the 9,000 cases re- ported so far, about half of whom have died. Doctors there are con- fronting ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. Juli Switala, a South Afri- can pediatrician with Doc- tors Without Borders, said her team chose not to help some sick babies who were not newborn out of fear that staff may be infected by bodily fluids. The group's clinic in the town of Bo in Sierra Leone similarly de- cided to turn away preg- nant women because child- birth poses a greater threat of infection. "It's very difficult to be the gynecologist who is making the decision to do a Caesarean section where there is going to be a lot of blood and a lot of body flu- ids, and you are putting your staff and team at risk if you do this," Switala said. She noted a curfew that bars people from rid- ing a motorbike, a com- mon form of transport, af- ter 7 p.m., meaning women who go into labor after that time have no way to reach a clinic. Additionally, peo- ple worry about running into police checkpoints be- cause they are uncertain of what will happen if they are tested and found to have a fever. There is no cure for Eb- ola, which has an incuba- tion period of up to 21 days and starts with fever and fatigue and can eventually result in organ failure and massive internal bleeding. The virus can be transmit- ted through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person, or ob- jects contaminated with in- fected secretions. HARD CHOICES Ebola crisis puts pressure on global human rights MICHAEL DUFF — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Healthcare workers prepare medicines at an Ebola treatment centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Wednesday.. 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