WASHINGTON, October 16 (RIA Novosti) - The National Nurses United plan to ask the US President Barack Obama to establish unified national Ebola response standards for US medical professionals, Executive Director of the largest union for professional nurses RoseAnn DeMoro said during a press briefing.
"What happened in Dallas, can happen anywhere," DeMoro said on Wednesday. "This is the responsibility of our elected officials to actually protect this nation and to protect the first line of defense [nurses]," she added.
Nurses from California to New York and around the world called in during the briefing to share their concerns about the lack of resources and preparedness of their local hospitals to fight against Ebola.
"This is outrageous that this is our responsibility," DeMoro noted.
Earlier this week two US healthcare workers, 26-year-old Nina Pham and 29-year-old Amber Joy Vinson, have caught Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to test positive for the disease in the United States at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Nurses around the United States are concerned that they do not have the proper protective gear and Ebola response plan to care for the infected.
In the letter to President Obama, DeMoro stated that the nurses' union was asking the President to ensure that US hospitals have access to optimal personal protective equipment and more direct care for each infected Ebola patient.
"We know that without these mandates to healthcare facilities we're putting registered nurses, physicians and other healthcare workers at extreme risk. They are first line of defense, we would not send soldiers to the battlefield without armor and weapons," said DeMoro.
Both DeMoro and CDC Director Tom Frieden admitted that they are only expecting the Ebola situation in the United States to get worse in the coming days and weeks.
On Wednesday, Frieden said that the CDC was preparing for more potential cases of Ebola after the second nurse from the Dallas hospital potentially infected hundreds of passengers on a Frontier Airlines flight between Texas and Ohio on Monday, a day before she tested positive for the deadly disease.
"We're also planning for other eventualities in case we get more cases in the coming days," said CDC Director Tom Frieden during a press briefing on Wednesday.
The CDC says they have identified at least 3 people, who came in contact with the most recent Ebola victim, before she was put into isolation, but think that 50 healthcare workers at the Dallas hospital had contact with Duncan between September 28 when he was admitted until October 8 when he died.
The CDC is asking the 132 passengers, who flew on a Frontier Airlines flight on October 13 from Texas to Ohio, to contact the agency immediately.
Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of the infected.
An official medication for Ebola has yet to be approved, but several countries are trying to develop a vaccine. The World Health Organization estimates that the Ebola death toll exceeds 4,400. So far, three people have tested positive for Ebola in the United States.
