First Ebola-stricken nurse at NIH is in fair, stable condition
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Version 0 of 1. Nina Pham, the first nurse diagnosed with Ebola after caring for a patient in Dallas, is in fair and stable condition at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, officials said Friday morning. “We are giving her the best possible care on a symptomatic and systemic basis,” Anthony Fauci, director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a news conference. Pham, 26, was transferred to the facility, one of four in the United States with a special biocontainment unit, late Thursday night, he said. She was diagnosed with Ebola on Sunday, becoming the first person to contract the disease on U.S. soil. Pham had been part of the team that treated Thomas Duncan, a Liberian man who flew to Dallas last month before being diagnosed with Ebola. Duncan died last week, four days before it was announced that Pham had contracted the disease. “There is no specific therapy that has been proven to be effective against Ebola, and that’s why excellent medical care is critical,” he said Amber Vinson, the second nurse who cared for Duncan and contracted the virus, was transferred to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Wednesday. Between 50 and 75 health-care workers and other personnel at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where Duncan was hospitalized, are being monitored for possible exposure. “With many of the medical professionals who would normally staff the intensive care unit sidelined for continuous monitoring, it is in the best interest of Nina, hospital employees, nurses, physicians and the community to give the hospital an opportunity to prepare for whatever comes next,” the hospital said in a statement Thursday. The NIH said Friday that Pham would not be billed for her treatment. “We made ourselves available, and when we were called upon we accepted the responsibility,” Fauci said. Fauci also said that the facility has a capacity to treat another patient and would be happy to treat another person if necessary. [This post has been updated.] |