Health Secretary: Dallas hospital needed 'much better oversight' in Ebola treatment


U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Wednesday that the government should have used "much better oversight" of the Dallas hospital where two health care workers became infected with Ebola.
Two workers who treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the first U.S. patient with Ebola, caught the disease while treating Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Burwell made the statements during an appearance on NBC's Today, adding that the government "will keep all options and considerations right now" for treatment of the two workers. Burwell said that the government will provide "more intensive training for workers," as well as having a 24-hour "site manager" to "oversee how equipment is being put on and taken off," The Associated Press reports.
Burwell's statements come after Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made similar statements about the hospital's Ebola procedure. On Tuesday, National Nurses United also accused the hospital of protocol breaches in Duncan's care.
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Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.
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