President Obama is cautiously optimistic. Both Texas nurses are getting better. Texas Health Presbyterian admits fault. A hospitalized cameraman is Ebola-free. And the U.S. Ebola czar starts his new job.
A health care worker worker who just returned from West Africa is under a mandatory quarantine at a New Jersey hospital. New York, New Jersey and Illinois implement mandatory Ebola quarantine policies as the federal government considers a similar move. The 101st Airborne Division assumes control of the U.S. mission to fight Ebola in Liberia.
U.S. DEVELOPMENTS
President cautiously optimistic
President Barack Obama said a number of things made him “cautiously more optimistic” about the Ebola situation in the United States and around the world. Obama said he was encouraged that dozens of people who had initial contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan did not get the virus. In addition, the two Americans who contracted Ebola outside and came to the United States for treatment were cured. He said he was pleased that both Nigeria and Senegal were Ebola free.
“It gives you some sense that when it’s caught early and where the public health infrastructure operates effectively, this outbreak can be stopped,” Obama said.
Obama thanks Dallas hospital workers
The President thanked health care workers at the hospital in Dallas where patient Duncan died of Ebola and two nurses became infected with the virus earlier this month.
In a telephone call Wednesday, Obama praised the Dallas workers’ “unflagging dedication” and their “tireless efforts to treat these patients despite the difficult conditions.”
He said health workers nationwide are “absolutely indispensable.”
Texas Health Presbyterian admits breakdown
The hospital system that owns Texas Health Presbyterian said it “fell short” several times in treating Duncan, starting by not asking the right questions in the emergency room. When the Liberian native came in with a fever, the nurse wrote down he “came from Africa” but didn’t specify which nation. A physician wrote that Duncan was a “local resident,” with “no contact with sick people. No symptoms of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea.”
Duncan’s family is angry
Duncan’s family is upset that Texas Health Presbyterian refused for weeks to release lab results that would have shown the effects of the experimental drug, brincidofovir, that was given to him, according to the Associated Press. The family told AP the hospital also changed the “consent relatives” who were overseeing his care and stopped providing relatives with medical information.
Cameraman beats Ebola
Freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo no longer has Ebola in his bloodstream and will be allowed to leave Nebraska Medical Center on Wednesday. The 33-year-old was working for NBC News when he tested positive for Ebola in Liberia. “I fought and won, with lots of help,” he tweeted.
Texas nurse to be transferred from isolation
Texas nurse Amber Vinson, who is being treated for Ebola at Emory Hospital in Atlanta, is steadily regaining her strength and her spirits are high, her family said. Her mother, Debra Berry, said doctors can no longer detect the virus in Vinson’s body. She will be transferred from isolation, and her family is “ecstatic,” Berry said.
Other Texas nurse is getting better
The condition of Nina Pham, who contracted Ebola after treating Duncan, has been upgraded from fair to good.
Bentley the dog doing well
Samples from nurse Pham’s dog Bentley were collected Monday. The good news is the animal tested negative for the virus. More specimens will be collected before the end of the 21-day quarantine.
U.S. ‘Ebola czar’ takes office
Ebola czar Ron Klain met President Obama at the White House on Wednesday, the day he officially started his new job. Klain doesn’t have any extensive background in health care, but the new job is regarded as a managerial challenge.
Ebola expeditionary team begins training
A 30-member U.S. military team that could be called on to respond to new cases of Ebola in the United States has begun specialized training at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, the Pentagon said. The one-week training includes infection control and how to use the personal protective gear.
Senate schedules hearing
AFRICA DEVELOPMENTS
TRAVEL DEVELOPMENTS
New travel restrictions in place
All U.S.-bound passengers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea must land in one of the five U.S. airports with enhanced screening for Ebola: New York’s John F. Kennedy International, Washington Dulles, New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International, Chicago’s O’Hare International and Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta. More than 4,500 people have died from Ebola from those three West African countries.
Travelers from Ebola-affected countries to be monitored for 3 weeks
All travelers coming from Ebola-affected areas will be actively monitored for 21 days starting Monday, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden announced in a telebriefing on Wednesday. Contact information including email, two phone numbers and a physical U.S. address will be gathered from all people coming to the United States from Liberia, Guinea or Sierra Leone, Frieden said.
AFRICA DEVELOPMENTS
Rwanda turns the tables
With a handful of Ebola patients in the United States and at least one in Spain, Rwanda is requiring anyone coming from those two countries to report their medical condition by phone to officials for the first 21 days of their visit, the U.S. Embassy in Kigali said.
Nigeria and Senegal Ebola free
Nigeria was declared Ebola-free on Monday after an announcement that Senegal is rid of the virus. Ebola is still spreading rapidly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, health officials report.
SPAIN DEVELOPMENTS
Good news for Spanish nurse
Nurse’s aide Teresa Romero Ramos is now free of Ebola. She contracted the virus after treating Ebola patients.
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
WHO convenes for Ebola
The World Health Organization released new statistics as it gathers for its third meeting of the Emergency Committee on Ebola on Wednesday.
The death toll has climbed to 4,877, and the number of cases has reached 9,936, as of October 19.
Those numbers were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain and the United States.
Vaccine testing underway
Testing has started on a vaccine at the U.S. National Institutes of Health while a trial for a second vaccine, developed in Canada, began at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland. It’s not clear when vaccines could be distributed to the masses.
CNN’s Ed Lavandera, Kevin Liptak, Barbara Starr and Rene Marsh contributed to this report.