Video shows Ebola nurse Nina Pham in hospital isolation

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/17/video-shows-ebola-nurse-nina-pham-in-hospital-isolation

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Video footage recorded at the hospital bedside of Nina Pham, who is thought to be the first person to have contracted Ebola within the US, has been released from Texas.

Pham, a 26-year-old nurse, is shown in the recording becoming tearful as she chats with her doctor at Texas Health Presbyterian hospital in Dallas before she was transferred to a National Institutes of Health facility in Bethesda, Maryland.

“Come to Maryland everybody,” she says during the 56-second clip, which was released on YouTube by the hospital’s operator. “I love you guys,” she tells Dr Gary Weinstein, who is dressed in a hazmat-style suit. Weinstein thanks her for her work to tackle the virus.

Texas Health Resources, which published the video, has recruited the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller after the infection of two of its nurses who dealt with Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian patient who died from Ebola on 8 October.

The second nurse to contract Ebola, 29-year-old Amber Vinson, has been transferred to Emory University hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, for treatment at a specialist facility. Vinson was allowed to take commercial flights to Ohio and back last week despite having a fever.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a request late on Thursday for any passengers on Vinson’s 10 October Frontier flight from Dallas to Cleveland to get in contact. It had previously sought passengers from Vinson’s 13 October Frontier return flight.

The CDC said in a statement that it was acting “on additional information obtained during interviews of close contacts” of Vinson. Relatives have said she visited the Akron area to see family members and her fiance.

On Thursday Dr Daniel Varga, the chief clinical officer for Texas Health Resources, apologised for errors made by the hospital, which sent Duncan home after he complained of a fever and abdominal pain following his arrival from Liberia last month.

“Unfortunately, in our initial treatment of Mr Duncan, despite our best intentions and highly skilled medical team we made mistakes,” Varga said in testimony to the US Congress. “We did not correctly diagnose his symptoms as those of Ebola. We are deeply sorry.”

The other 75 staff members from Texas Health Presbyterian hospital have been given a “binding legal document and order” that states they will avoid public transport, not go to areas where large numbers of people congregate and continue to be monitored twice a day for symptoms.