WND EXCLUSIVE

Ebola nurse moved to National Institutes of Health

Congressional committee updated on war against deadly virus

Published: 2 days ago

WASHINGTON – Ebola-infected Dallas nurse Nina Pham is being moved to Washington for treatment, health officials told a hearing of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday.

The hearing, chaired by Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., was held as the World Health Organization announced from Geneva the total number of confirmed Ebola cases worldwide is expected to exceed 9,000, with deaths surpassing 4,500. The number of cases is now doubling every four weeks.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, announced Pham was scheduled to be transferred to the NIH in Washington, D.C., for treatment.

In his opening statement, Centers for Disease Control Director Dr. Thomas Frieden continued to reassure the American people that CDC knows how to contain the current Ebola outbreak in the U.S.

“As we learn from the recent importation case in Dallas and subsequent transmissions, and continue the public health response there, we remain confident that Ebola is not a significant public health threat to the United States,” Frieden said.

“It is not transmitted easily, and it does not spread from people who are not ill, and cultural norms that contribute to the spread of the disease in Africa – such as burial customs and inadequate public-health measures – are not a factor in the United States.”

As he has done repeatedly in the past few weeks, Frieden insisted existing CDC procedures for handling the disease are sufficient.

“We know Ebola can be stopped with rapid diagnosis, appropriate triage and meticulous infection-control practices in American hospitals,” he said. “And the United States is leading the international effort to stop it at the source in Africa. CDC is committing significant resources both on the ground in West Africa and through our Emergency Operations Center here at home.”

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Frieden also repeated the CDC position that Ebola is cannot be transmitted by airborne mechanisms.

“Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of someone who is sick with, or has died from Ebola, or through exposure to objects such as needles that have been contaminated,” he testified. “The current evidence suggests human-to-human transmission of Ebola only happens from people who are symptomatic – not from people who have been exposed to, but are not ill with the disease.”

Fauci said that no drugs are available “that have been shown safe and effective specifically to treat Ebola virus infection.”

Fauci indicated the NIH has been working on Ebola vaccines for years and started Phase 1 testing in human beings in September on an Ebola vaccine developed in conjunction with GlaxoSmithKline. Phase 1 testing is anticipated soon for ZMapp, a combination of three antibodies developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. that prevents the Ebola virus in monkeys when administered as late as 48 hours after exposure.

Robin Robinson, director of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told the subcommittee the best way to stop the spread of Ebola in the U.S. was to contain the outbreak in West Africa.

Dr. Luciana Borio, assistant commissioner for Counterterrorism Policy at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in her opening statement stressed that all experimental vaccines must complete successfully both Phase 1 and Phase 2 testing before they are approved as safe for use in treating Ebola in human patients.

“While FDA is making every effort to encourage development, speed review and use flexible approaches to authorize potential medical products to address Ebola, we cannot lose sight of the scientific fact that investigational vaccines and treatments for Ebola are in the earliest stages of development,” she testified.

“Data on safety or effectiveness in humans are limited or lacking, and accurate assessment (especially of effectiveness) may be impossible if adequately designed clinical trials are not performed. Currently, there are only small amounts of some experimental products that have been manufactured for testing.”

John Wagner, acting assistant commissioner of the Office of Field Operations, Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, testified that on Oct. 11 at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, CBP implemented enhanced screening of travelers from three affected countries. The screening also is being implemented at Dulles International Airport in Washington, Chicago O’Hare, Atlanta and Newark.

Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer and senior vice president at Texas Health Resources in Dallas, admitted mistakes were made in treating the first patient to develop Ebola in the U.S., Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan.

“We fell short in our failure to detect and diagnose Ebola when Mr. Duncan first came to the emergency room,” Varga said.

He said that both infected nurses, Pham and Amber Joy Vinson, were wearing protective gear and appeared to be following CDC procedures when they contracted the disease as a result of the health care services they performed for Duncan.

“Ms. Pham is known as an extremely skilled nurse, and she was using full protective measures under the CDC protocols; so we don’t yet know precisely how or when she was infected. But it’s clear there was an exposure somewhere, sometime,” he testified in his opening statement.

“We are poring over records and observations, and doing all we can to find the answers.”

In the questioning section of the hearing, the health-care officials testifying were asked sharply worded questions by Republicans and Democrats alike on the committee. The questions reflected the inability of Congress to understand how Ebola has developed in the U.S. despite measures taken by CDC and the Obama administration in general to keep the disease from U.S. shores.

Murphy pressed Frieden on whether the Obama administration was going to adhere to the current policy of not restricting air travel from West Africa, as well as allowing generally unscreened travel within the U.S.

“We will consider any measures that we determine will protect the American people,” Frieden answered, dodging a direct answer to the question.

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., pressed Frieden on why the U.S. has not imposed a travel ban on West Africa when various African nations have done so.

“I don’t know all the details of what other countries are doing, and I understand that some of the policies in foreign nations are in flux,” Frieden responded.

“Right now, we know who is coming into the United States,” he argued.

“If we try to restrict air travel, people from West Africa may try to get into the United States by land. Our borders are porous and if West Africans enter over land, we will not be able to monitor them for fever or to question them when they enter the country.”

In response to questioning from Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Frieden testified that human waste and the body fluids of Ebola patients can be “easily decontaminated.”

He explained that CDC intended to continue the current policy of allowing private companies to dispose of body fluid wastes of Ebola patients in private facilities.

Under intense questions form various members of the subcommittee, Wagner admitted the porous U.S. borders would make identifying and screening West African travelers more difficult. But he argued it’s a reason air travel restrictions should not be imposed on West Africa.

Varga acknowledged the hospital protocol for PPE (personal protective equipment) was not imposed until after Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola. Up to that point, the use of PPE by hospital personnel had been “variable,” he said. Some health-care workers who supported Duncan immediately after he was admitted did not wear PPE.

Frieden further stated the CDC emergency response team was not dispatched to Dallas to assist in treating Duncan until after he had been admitted for three days and was finally diagnosed with Ebola.

Questioned about the risk of children contracting Ebola, Frieden said parents should not be concerned unless the family lives in West Africa or has had direct personal contact with a person showing Ebola symptoms.

Under questioning by Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo., Frieden insisted Ebola cannot be transmitted airborne from person-to-person but only through direct contact with an Ebola-infected person showing symptoms. Pressed further, Frieden told Long there was no medical necessity requiring Frontier Airlines to “scrub” the interior of the aircraft on which nurse Vinson traveled.

In response to separate questions, Frieden admitted Dallas hospital personnel did not wear protective equipment until three days after Duncan was finally admitted and then only because the tests for Ebola came back positive.

Frieden assured the subcommittee there will not be a large outbreak of Ebola in the U.S. unless the Ebola virus undergoes a substantial mutation.

“We are confidant Ebola is not transmitted airborne,” he said. “The two nurses infected were working with Duncan when he was very sick, and there was a lot of vomiting and body fluids to deal with.”

None of the medical personnel testifying offered any precise explanation as to how the two nurses became infected.

http://www.wnd.com/2014/10/ebola-nur...tes-of-health/