U.S. Officials Comment On Dallas Ebola Cases, Research Into Vaccines

News outlets report on U.S. health officials’ statements about the U.S. Ebola cases and research for a vaccine.

Agence France-Presse: First U.S. Ebola infection result of ‘protocol breach’
“A Texas health care worker has become the first person to contract Ebola on American soil, authorities confirmed, blaming a safety breach for the spread of the deadly disease…” (Sheridan, 10/12).

Deutsche Welle: Health bosses cite ‘breach of protocol’ in latest Ebola case
“The female health care worker who tested positive for Ebola caught the disease because of a lapse in protocol, according to the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Thomas Frieden…” (10/12).

The Hill: CDC director: More Ebola cases possible
“…The CDC is sending more staff to Texas to ‘assist in this response,’ which includes opening an investigation to figure out how the worker became infected and how health workers at the Dallas hospital treat diseased patients…” (Wilson, 10/12).

The Hill: NIH official: ‘The system worked’
“Following news that a health care worker in Dallas has tested positive for Ebola, a top official at the National Institutes of Health said Sunday that the ‘system worked.’ ‘This was a breach in protocol,’ Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on ABC’s ‘This Week’…” (Balluck, 10/12).

The Hill: Health official: Ebola travel bans would be ‘counterproductive’
“A top U.S. medical official warned Sunday that barring travel from countries facing an Ebola outbreak could do more harm than good. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the push to isolate those countries could worsen the outbreak, which in turn could cause it to spill to neighboring regions and make it that much harder to control…” (Schroeder, 10/12).

Huffington Post: Ebola Vaccine Would Likely Have Been Found By Now If Not For Budget Cuts: NIH Director
“…Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, said that a decade of stagnant spending has ‘slowed down’ research on all items, including vaccinations for infectious diseases. As a result, he said, the international community has been left playing catch-up on a potentially avoidable humanitarian catastrophe…” (10/12).

Reuters: CDC head criticized for blaming ‘protocol breach’ as nurse gets Ebola
“Some health care experts are bristling at the assertion by a top U.S. health official that a ‘protocol breach’ caused a Dallas nurse to be infected with Ebola while caring for a dying patient, saying the case instead shows how far the nation’s hospitals are from adequately training staff to deal with the deadly virus…” (Steenhuysen, 10/13).

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