A healthcare worker in Texas is now America’s first person to contract Ebola in the United States, and the second person to catch the potentially fatal virus outside Africa.  US Health officials are promising a full investigation on how the transmission might have occurred.

“Clearly there was a breach in protocol,” said US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) chief Dr. Tom Frieden.  They haven’t publicly identified the worker.  She detected a fever Friday night and drove herself to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital emergency room, where she was placed in isolation 90 minutes later.  A blood sample sent to the state health lab in Austin confirmed Saturday night that she had Ebola.

It’s the same hospital where she was part of the team caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died of Ebola last week.  Duncan showed up in the emergency room on 24 September and, despite having a 103 degree F fever, was turned away with some antibiotics and Tylenol.  Family members from another state called the CDC and Duncan was admitted on 28 September.

The worker now in isolation had worn a gown, gloves, mask and shield when providing care to Duncan during his second and final hospital admission, according to Texas health officials.  Dr. Frieden said the feds will step up education and training of healthcare workers, and to limit the number of people within the Texas hospital staff treating Ebola cases.