Update 5 p.m.: The patient at Yale-New Haven hospital, who was being evaluated for Ebola-like symptoms, has tested negative for the virus.
Officials at Yale-New Haven Hospital say a patient who the hospital admitted last night for evaluation of Ebola-like symptoms is in stable condition and improving.
The patient is a Yale student who recently returned from Liberia with a group of other students.
Dr. Bob Alpern, the Dean of Yale Medical school, was asked at a press conference Thursday why the researchers were not immediately quarantined following their return to the U.S.
"This was done in coordination with the CDC and it was based on the fact that these students had no contact with any patients who were actively sick from Ebola while they were in Liberia," said Alpern.
"Our understanding is they did have contact with one person who eventually developed Ebola, but he didn’t have it and he wasn’t symptomatic when they had contact,” Alpern said.
That's significant because health officials say the virus is not contagious unless people are showing symptoms.
Hospital officials say they'll have test results back within 24 hours.
Two nurses at a hospital in Dallas have contracted Ebola after treating an infected man there. Yale officials say their hospital is going beyond recommended CDC guidance on treating Ebola patients. Those recommendations were made stricter earlier this week.
Thomas Balcezak of Yale New Haven Hospital says they are trying to limit the number of medical team personnel who interact with the patient to the minimum number possible.
“Our policy and practice is to ensure that there are two individual nurses that are caring for this patient. One that’s caring for the patient and one that’s ensuring that that nurse is donning and doffing- that is, putting on and taking off their equipment in the appropriate fashion – something that we thought was necessary that the equipment is used correctly, and most importantly, removed correctly after use.”
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy is ordering all hospitals in the state to test their preparedness within the next week to handle potential Ebola cases.
Malloy stressed that people should remain calm, because it’s difficult to contract the virus.
“Many people today, in the next 24 hours, are going to have a headache," said Malloy. "They‘re going to have an upset stomach, they’re going to have a case of diarrhea. These things are going to happen. The real question to ask yourself is, ‘Hey, have I traveled to West Africa recently? Have I been in contact with anybody who’s traveled? Do I know of any contact I’ve had?’ If the answer to those is yes, get yourself to a hospital.”
Malloy also announced he has established a command team to act as a central authority to deal with any Ebola cases in the state. The team is led by Public Health Commissioner Dr. Jewell Mullen and includes officials from state agencies for public safety, education, prison, and environmental protection.
The moves come a week after the governor gave Mullen the authority to quarantine anyone who may have been exposed to Ebola. Mullen used that authority for the Yale patient, and other research students who traveled with the patient.
