The Ebola crisis in the United States took another alarming turn Oct. 15 with word a second Dallas nurse caught the disease from a patient, reports AP. She flew across the Midwest aboard an airliner the day before she fell ill, even though government guidelines should have kept her off the plane.Amid growing concern, President Barack Obama canceled a campaign trip to address the outbreak and said his administration would respond in a “much more aggressive way” to Ebola cases in the United States.President Obama said he had directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to step up its response to new cases, reports AP. “We want a rapid response team, a SWAT team essentially, from the CDC to be on the ground as quickly as possible, hopefully within 24 hours, so that they are taking the local hospital step by step though what needs to be done,” he said.The second nurse was identified as 29-year-old Amber Joy Vinson. Medical records provided to AP by Thomas Eric Duncan’s family showed she inserted catheters, drew blood and dealt with Duncan’s body fluids. Vinson was transferred Oct. 15 to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola after coming to the United States from Liberia. He died Oct. 8. He was the first person to die from Ebola in the United States.The virus that began in West Africa has now spread to Nigeria, Spain, Senegal, and the United States. The outbreak has infected over 7,000 people in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.Duncan came to the United States to visit family. According to the AP, it was his first time in the United States. He showed no symptoms of Ebola when he left Liberia on Sept. 20 but went to an emergency room in Dallas a few days after arriving. Doctors there failed to diagnose Duncan with the Ebola virus, and sent him home, despite Duncan telling the doctors he came from West Africa.Nina Pham, a nurse who was treating Duncan in Dallas, tested positive for the Ebola virus, making her the first person to contract the virus within the United States. Pham received a blood transfusion from Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly, who contracted the virus while treating patients in West Africa but has since survived the virus and developed antibodies. Pham was said to be in an improved condition on Oct. 15, according to Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. As Ebola spreads throughout the world, countries are heightening the precautions they are taking to ensure the virus does not spread any further.Kelsie Gordan, a junior majoring in biology from Washington, added, “I don’t think we’ll have an epidemic in America with Ebola like the other countries. We take all the proper precautions, and we’re a lot more careful when it comes to sanitation.”“I think we’re safe in America,” Alyssa Troyanek, a junior majoring in international cultural studies from Arizona, said. “The underdeveloped countries are more at risk, and it’s sad to see them being so affected by the virus.”
Writer: Emily Halls ~ Multimedia Journalist
