Dallas Hospital Staff Had No Ebola Training, Official Says

ABC News(WASHINGTON) — Health care workers in the Dallas hospital that treated a patient who died from Ebola and then treated two nurses who contracted the disease never received in-person training on how to treat Ebola patients and avoid spreading the highly contagious disease, a top hospital official said at a Congressional hearing Thursday.

Dr. Daniel Varga said that, even though guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were sent to the emergency department at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in late July, there was no follow-up training ordered for the staff. Less than two months later, the hospital staff sent a man with Ebola home with a fever even though he was likely contagious at the time.

Varga is one of the panel of top American health officials testifying in Congress as part of a hearing on the federal government’s response to Ebola cases in the United States.

During the hearing Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that one of the infected nurses did not violate any rules.

Frieden said that while nurse Amber Vinson, 29, was in contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who died of Ebola, she had worn personal protective equipment and she did not need to have her movement restricted.

Frieden said that Vinson did contact the CDC before flying back to Dallas.

“I have not seen the transcript of the conversation,” Frieden said. “My understanding is that she reported no symptoms to us.”

At the start of the hearing, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee made it clear that they would focus on the agency’s handling of the first Ebola patient in Dallas and the ensuing infections of two nurses, one of whom was allowed to fly a plane a day before she tested positive for the disease.

In prepared remarks for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Frieden claimed that the CDC “remain[s] confident that Ebola is not a significant public health threat to the United States.”

“Within hours of confirming that the patient had Ebola, CDC had a team of 10 people on the ground in Dallas to assist the capable teams from the Texas state health department and local authorities,” he said, referring to Duncan.

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