Dallas Nurse Treated For Ebola Released From Hospital Virus-Free
BETHESDA, Md. (CBS/AP) — A nurse who caught Ebola while caring for the patient diagnosed in Dallas was released from a hospital Friday, free of the virus.
Nurse Nina Pham said she felt "fortunate and blessed to be standing here today," as she left the National Institutes of Health's hospital outside Washington.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease chief at the NIH, gave Pham a hug before she thanked her physicians for her care.
The 26-year-old Pham arrived last week at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. She had been flown there from Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
Pham is one of two nurses in Dallas who became infected with Ebola while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of the virus Oct. 8.
Last week, the largest union of registered nurses in the United States is calling on President Obama to mandate uniform standards and protocols for the treatment of the virus.
Deborah Berger, who is co-president of the Oakland-based National Nurses United, said they have been contacted by nurses from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas reporting ill-preparation by the hospital that treated Ebola patient Thomas Duncan, including leaving him in areas with other patients and sending his lab specimens though the hospital's pneumatic tube delivery system for sending samples.
Although California has no confirmed cases of Ebola, Bay Area public health officials aren't taking any chances.
Amy Nichols, Director of Infection Control at UCSF, said hospital workers are regularly trained in infection prevention.
"They're the same strategies that were in place in the early '80s when HIV came on the scene. As a matter of fact that's what drove many of these strategies. They work when they're done correctly," she said.
Ebola patients aren't contagious until they start displaying symptoms so it's critical that if hospitals start seeing people with flu-like symptoms who have either traveled to or been in contact with someone in an Ebola-infected area, they let officials know immediately.
As the CDC and Department of Homeland Security beefed up screening at five of the nation's busiest international airports in early October, federal officials could decide if California airports are next, depending on the number of international passengers and travel patterns.
San Francisco International and Los Angeles International airports already have CDC quarantine centers that are ready when needed, but unlike the five airports doing the screenings, none of the three Bay Area international airports have direct flights to Africa.
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