Health worker becomes second Ebola case in U.S.

A health care worker in Texas became the second person infected with Ebola on U.S. soil, apparently the result of a "breach in protocol" during the treatment of the first patient with the deadly virus in the country, U.S. health officials said Sunday.

The health care worker, said to be a female nurse at Texas Presbyterian Hospital, had "extensive contact" on "multiple occasions" with the first patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, during his in-patient care that started on Sept. 28, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Tom Frieden said.

Then on Friday, she reported a low grade fever. A preliminary test result done at a state public health laboratory in Austin Saturday showed that the worker contracted the virus. Further tests conducted by the CDC confirmed the diagnosis Sunday afternoon.

"We are deeply concerned," Frieden told a press conference.

"We don't know what occurred in the care of the index patient -- the original patient in Dallas," said Frieden. "But at some point there was a breach in protocol, and that breach in protocol resulted in this infection."

He said they're looking "particularly closely" at performance of kidney dialysis and respiratory intubation on Duncan, which he described as "high risk procedures" that may spread contaminated materials.

The CDC chief also identified taking off personal protective equipment as "a major area for risk" of infection as it's "not easy to do right."

"It is possible in the coming days that we will see additional cases of Ebola," Frieden said. "This is because the health care workers who cared for this individual may have had a breach of the same nature of the individual who appears now to have preliminary positive tests."

Meanwhile, the White House said President Barack Obama has been briefed on the second Ebola case by his health secretary, Sylvia Burwell, and his assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, Lisa Monaco.

"The president during the conversation directed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's investigation into the apparent breach in infection control protocols at the Dallas hospital move as expeditiously as possible, " the White House said in a statement.

The statement added that Obama also urged federal authorities to "take immediate additional steps to ensure hospitals and healthcare providers nationwide are prepared to follow protocols should they encounter an Ebola patient."

According to the CDC, the nurse has been notified of the confirmatory test results and treatment decisions will be made by the patient and hospital.

Earlier, Texas Health Resources chief clinical officer Dan Varga said that the nurse's condition is stable and that a close contact has also been proactively placed in isolation.

"The care-giver and the family have requested today privacy, so we can't discuss any further details of the situation," Varga added in a statement.

Duncan, a 42-year-old Liberian, arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20 to visit family. He began showing Ebola symptoms on Sept. 24 and went to the hospital on Sept. 25, only to be sent back with some antibiotics.

He returned to the hospital two days later when his condition deteriorated and was kept in isolation since. He was pronounced dead Wednesday. Enditem