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Health officials grilled over U.S. response to Ebola

A House panel sharply questioned health officials over their response and the White House’s response to the Ebola virus and steps to prevent an outbreak o...
CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A House panel sharply questioned health officials Thursday over their response and the White House’s response to the Ebola virus, as well as steps to prevent an outbreak of the disease in the United States.

Republicans again called on the Obama administration to restrict all travel to the U.S. from the most affected West African nations. Democratic members of Congress called increased screenings at U.S. airports sufficient to prevent a major outbreak in the U.S. and said the U.S. should focus its efforts on the humanitarian crisis in West Africa.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden faced a series of tough questions from members of both parties about why his agency failed to put clearer procedures in place to track those exposed to the virus, as well as its assessment that most hospitals were equipped to handle Ebola patients.

Rep. Tim Murphy, who chaired the investigative hearing, raised a series of questions about recent failures to prevent the virus’s spread in the U.S. and raised questions about policies in place to keep Ebola off of U.S. soil.

“The trust and credibility of the administration and government are waning,” Murphy, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said, adding that the U.S. should “do everything in our power to keep the American people safe from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.”

Murphy said a ban on travelers from West Africa could keep the disease from spreading further in the U.S and said that screening patients for fever is not enough to present a disease, citing a study that about 13% of patients infected with Ebola in West Africa had no fever.

Frieden said the U.S. has helped implement effective airport screenings at airports in affected countries and noted that those screenings identified 74 people with fever in September.

Frieden said he was “open to ideas” to “keep Americans as safe as possible,” which he called the Center’s mission, and noted his agency’s increased efforts to increase awareness among physicians about how to identify Ebola.

The ranking Democrat Rep. Diana DeGette disagreed that a travel ban would be effective, noting that U.S. and global public health officials have not called for those types of bans.

“We should not panic. We know how to stop Ebola outbreaks,” she said. “The best way to stop Ebola is to fight it in Africa.”

DeGette and fellow Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman also blamed spending cuts for undercutting the CDC and National Institute of Health’s ability to fight the disease.

Waxman noted that the CDC budget has dropped by 12% since 2006 and that the public health emergency preparedness fund has been cut to $612 million from $1 billion in 2002.

Degette also said it is “inevitable that another person will show up” at a U.S. hospital with Ebola symptoms.

“There’s no such thing as fortress America when it comes to infectious disease”

A second health care worker was diagnosed with Ebola on Wednesday. Amber Vinson, 29, works as a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was treated. Duncan died last week. But many are questioning how Vinson was able to board a commercial flight and travel back and forth to Ohio after she was being monitored as part of the team that cared for Duncan.

Vinson was moved from Dallas to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Wednesday, where two others who contracted Ebola were treated. But Frieden said that Vinson should never have traveled on a commercial plane.

Nina Pham, a nurse who also treated Duncan, was the first at the Dallas Hospital to be diagnosed with Ebola, but her condition has improved, and she continues to be treated in Dallas.

President Barack Obama canceled campaign travel Wednesday to meet with Frieden, and top Administration officials at the White House. Afterward he said monitoring of those potentially exposed must be done in a “much more aggressive way.” The president, who also canceled his travel for Thursday, also said the CDC will dispatch rapid response teams as soon as a case of Ebola is reported.

Rep Tom Marino, also a Pennsylvania Republican, called on Frieden to step down as CDC Director on Wednesday. Marino said the Ebola situation is “spiraling out of control” and added that “the information provided to the public has been cryptic and in some cases misleading. This has provided a false sense of security to many of our citizens.”

House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement late Wednesday, “A temporary ban on travel to the United States from countries afflicted with the virus is something that the president should absolutely consider along with any other appropriate actions as doubts about the security of our air travel systems grow.”

So far Administration officials have cautioned that putting a ban in place could complicate the ability to get supplies and personnel to the affected region, and make it harder to stop the spread of the disease.

The Texas hospital where Duncan was treated has been criticized for how it responded to Duncan’s symptoms, and for failing to put protocols in place to protect those health care workers who came in contact with him.

In prepared testimony, Daniel Varga, the Chief Clinical Officer for the Texas company that includes Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, apologized to the House committee.

“Unfortunately, in our initial treatment of Mr. Duncan, despite our best intentions and a highly skilled medical team, we made mistakes. We did not correctly diagnose his symptoms as those of Ebola. We are deeply sorry,” Varga said.

With just twenty days left before the midterm elections the federal government’s response to the Ebola outbreak has become an issue in some competitive congressional races.

Colorado Republican Congressman Cory Gardner, who is locked in a competitive race for the Senate against Democratic Senator Mark Udall, will travel back to Washington on Thursday to attend the hearing. The number three House GOP leader, Louisiana Rep Steve Scalise, is also planning to come back to Washington for the hearing.

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