AP Photo / LM Otero
A hazmat worker cleaning outside the apartment building of a hospital worker diagnosed with Ebola. The worker, a nurse, cared for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who later died
The worker, who cared for the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, Thomas Eric Duncan," reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated at the hospital," the department said in a statement.
Duncan died at Texas Health Presbyterian last week and the 26-year-old nurse who cared for him, Nina Pham, was diagnosed with Ebola on Sunday.
"Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored. The type of monitoring depends on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus," officials added.
The news comes just a day after the National Nurses Union released a statement criticizing the treatment response to Ebola, including the training and protective equipment provided to hospital workers.
"Nurses and other frontline hospital personnel must have the highest level of protective equipment, such as the Hazmat suits Emery University or the CDC themselves use while transporting patients and hands on training and drills for all RNs and other hospital personnel, that includes the practice putting on and taking off the optimal equipment," RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of the largest U.S. organization of nurses, said in a media release.
The union will host a national call-in conference call on Wednesday at 3 p.m. to discuss concerns about hospital readiness in the US.