Information Relay Failure Admitted In Texas Ebola Victim Case

A patient was diagnosed with Ebola on Sept. 30 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.(Photo: Mike Stone, Getty Images)

THE WASHINGTON POST

By Mark Berman October 1 at 3:15 PM

The man in Texas who tested positive for Ebola told hospital officials he had traveled from West Africa when he sought treatment on Friday, but that information was not relayed to everyone treating him at that time, authorities said Wednesday.

As a result, the man was diagnosed with a “low-grade, common viral disease” and sent home that day, said Mark C. Lester, executive vice president of the health-care system that includes Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, the Dallas facility treating the Ebola patient.

“Regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team,” Lester said during a news conference Wednesday. “As a result, the full import of that information wasn’t factored into the clinical decision-making.”

The oversight allowed this man to leave the hospital at a time when he was symptomatic, according to the timeline outlined by federal health officials. The Centers for Disease Control issued national guidelines in August for evaluating potential Ebola cases, which included seeing if a patient with certain symptoms had recently visited a West African country hit by the Ebola outbreak.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/10/01/texas-patient-with-ebola-told-hospital-workers-during-initial-visit-he-had-traveled-from-west-africa/