US President Barack Obama has instructed US Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell to conduct an investigation into the case of Ebola virus infection in Texas, the White House press service said in a Sunday statement.
“The President during the conversation [with Secretary Burwell] directed that … The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s [CDC] investigation into the apparent breach in infection control protocols at the Dallas hospital move as expeditiously as possible,” the press release read.
Obama also stressed the importance for the additional personnel CDC to be sent to the area to work closely with state and local authorities to review infection control procedures, adding that the lessons learned from the inquiry must be shared quickly and broadly.
The US President also ordered at a federal level to ensure the readiness of hospitals to follow protocols should they encounter an Ebola patient.
A Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola on the US territory, died on Wednesday. A health worker, who helped to care for Duncan has been tested positive for the deadly virus on Sunday.
The Ebola epidemic in West Africa broke out in southern Guinea in February, and later spread across Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the death toll from the epidemic has surpassed 4,000. There is currently no officially approved cure for Ebola, however, several nations, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan are working on a vaccine.
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