Ebola outbreak: What you need to know now
1. How many cases have been contracted in the United States?
A second Texas health care worker testedpositive for Ebola.
The health care worker, who was not identified, reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. The hospital worker helped care for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, the Texas Department of State Health Services said.
New cases of Ebola could reach 10,000 a week by December as the virus outbreak races out of control in West Africa, World Health Organization officials said this week.
2. How are health care workers in Texas dealing with Ebola?
Texas Nurses Association, which represents more than 7,000 Texas nurses, is calling for more training, and is urging health care workers to speak up to hospital management whenever they have questions or concerns about safety.
3. Is there a vaccine yet?
Two types of vaccines are being tested. A vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada began testing Monday at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Md. The vaccine uses a vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) to deliver its payload.
A second type of vaccine, which uses an adenovirus, is being developed by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. A clinical trial of that vaccine began at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., last month. Another trial of this vaccine began in the West African country of Mali last week.
Promising potential therapies include blood transfusions, vaccines, antiviral drugs, man-made antibodies and Ebola prevention reproduction.
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