CDC investigating Ebola protocol, as second U.S. patient confirmed

2014-10-13 5

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STORY: A Texas health worker who closely treated the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. and who later contracted the deadly virus herself may have become contaminated while helping perform those life saving measures.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Sunday (October 12) that investigators will be looking closely at two areas of care given at the Dallas hospital where Thomas Eric Duncan, patient "zero", also described as the "index" patient, was treated: kidney dialysis and respiratory intubation, where a tube is put into the patient's windpipe.

"Both of those procedures may spread contaminated materials and are considered high-risk procedures," said Thomas Frieden, the Director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, on Sunday.

"They were undertaken on the index patient as a desperate measure to try to save his life,"

Frieden said all of the health care workers who hel