 "Dallas nurse improves, experts warn Ebola to spread in West Africa")
DALLAS (Reuters) - The nurse who contracted Ebola from a Liberian patient in a Texas hospital said on Tuesday she was doing well, while U.S. health officials were monitoring 76 people and establishing an Ebola rapid-response team.
Prospects for a quick end to the contagion fell as the World Health Organization predicted West Africa could produce as many as 10,000 new cases per week by December.
U.S. President Barack Obama, addressing defense chiefs from about 20 countries, said the world was not doing enough to combat the virus and must stop it at its source.
Nina Pham, a 26-year-old Vietnamese-American, became the first person infected by Ebola in the United States while caring for the Liberian for much of his 11 days at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. He died on Oct. 8.
Pham received a transfusion on Monday containing antibodies to fight the virus, according to a Roman Catholic priest in Pham’s congregation. Her patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, did not receive one because he did not match the donor’s blood type.
Christian relief group Samaritan’s Purse has said that Kent Brantly, a doctor who survived an Ebola infection, donated plasma to Pham.
“I’m doing well and want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers," Pham said in a statement released by the hospital. “I am blessed by the support of family and friends.”
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAt a news conference on Tuesday. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr. Thomas Frieden said 48 people who had potential contact with Duncan “have passed through the highest risk period” for contracting Ebola.
He said 76 people now were being monitored who may have come into contact with Duncan after he was hospitalized on Sept. 28. It includes Pham and other health workers and hospital staff.
The hospital has been criticized for not admitting Duncan the first time he sought help, days after arriving in the United States from Liberia, one of the worst-hit countries along with Sierra Leone and Guinea. He returned days later in an ambulance.
Frieden has come under pressure over the response and preparedness for Ebola, but White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama is confident of Frieden’s ability to lead the public health effort. He said White House Homeland Security advisor Lisa Monaco “continues to play the role of coordinating the efforts” of all agencies involved.
The CDC is setting up an Ebola response team for hospitals with Ebola patients and has vowed to put a team on the ground anywhere in the United States “within hours,” Frieden told reporters.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called the outbreak the worst on record with at least 4,447 dead. WHO Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward said on Tuesday that by the first week in December, WHO projections suggest there may be between 5,000 and 10,000 new cases a week in impoverished Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Aylward stressed the difficulty of making accurate predictions. WHO said the actual mortality rate is about 70 percent in those countries, compared with the roughly 50 percent reported previously.
ONE CONTACT WITH NURSE
Ebola, which can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhea, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva.
One person known to have had close contact with the Dallas nurse Pham has been put under observation in the hospital in case he develops signs of Ebola, the CBS Dallas television station reported on Tuesday.
The man, who has not been identified, is an employee of global eye care company Alcon, a unit of the drug company Novartis. The company was not immediately available to comment.
White House Budget Director Shaun Donovan pressed U.S. lawmakers to speed up funds to fight Ebola, including the remaining $250 million in requested Defense Department money under review.
“The rapid spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa shows that time is of the essence. Given the nature of this crisis, every minute counts,” Donovan wrote in an Oct. 10 letter to Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers and ranking Democrat Nita Lowey.
Meanwhile, the family who shared an apartment with Duncan after he arrived in Texas is showing no signs of illness, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said on CNN.
The CDC is working to determine how Pham was infected while caring for Duncan. Nurses groups have demanded better training and guidance on how to use equipment that already includes face shields, masks, gowns and gloves.
The infection of the Dallas nurse is the second known to have occurred outside West Africa since the outbreak that began in March. It follows the transmission of the virus to a Spanish nurse in Madrid who helped treat a missionary who was repatriated from Sierra Leone and died of Ebola. The nurse was slightly better on Tuesday and remains the only known case in Spain.
(Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, Roberta Rampton, Doina Chiacu and David Lawder in Washington, Dave Sherwood in Maine and Kevin Murphy in Kansas; Editing by Jim Loney, Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
