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HEALTH-VIRUS-US-CALIFORNIA
US patient with coronavirus of unknown origin denied test for days
LOS ANGELES, Feb 28, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Medical staff caring for a California
woman with the first US case of novel coronavirus of unknown origin were
unable to get her tested for five days because she had not traveled to
outbreak-hit regions, a lawmaker revealed Thursday.
The development comes amid reports citing a whistleblower complaint that
federal health workers interacted with quarantined patients in two California
air bases without proper gear or training, before dispersing around the
country.
One of these sites, Travis Air Force Base, is in Solano County, where the
ill woman is also from.
In a congressional hearing, Representative Ami Bera said the patient was
admitted to the University of California Davis Medical Center on February 19
and quickly placed on a ventilator.
The same day, her doctors asked to submit a sample for a coronavirus test
to federal authorities.
But it was not until February 23, after her condition had worsened, that
there was “an insistence and a strong push and ultimately the patient did get
tested,” added Bera, a doctor who once worked at the same hospital.
He said he learned of the case details from former colleagues.
It took another three days for the positive result to return, and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday declared it the
first suspected case of community transmission.
This means the source of infection is unknown, a sign that the pathogen is
no longer contained.
If confirmed, the development represents a new and more complicated
challenge in the battle against the virus in the US.
Bera, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the
Pacific and Nonproliferation, questioned CDC director Robert Redfield, who
said the agency’s testing guidelines were updated Thursday as a result of the
case.
– Difficult to recognize –
“The recommendation should be when a clinician or public health individual
suspects coronavirus, then we should be able to get a test for coronavirus,
so that’s the current guidance that went out today,” said Redfield.
The official testified that what made the coronavirus particularly
difficult to recognize is that infected people can show no symptoms and
spread it.
Or, they may have only mild symptoms like a scratchy throat or dry cough.
Brian Garibaldi, a public health expert at Johns Hopkins Hospital in
Maryland, said he expected the number of cases being tested in the US to
surge as a result of the new guidelines. – Whistleblower complaint –
A whistleblower complaint cited by US media including the Washington Post
and New York Times said federal health employees were sent to interact with
repatriated Americans at the two bases without protective gear or training.
The filing was submitted by a senior official in the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) who said she was improperly re-assigned after
raising her concerns and threatened with being fired if she did not comply.
In total, there were just under 30 workers who were exposed in this way in
late January and early February, the complaint said.
Speaking at an earlier news conference in California, Governor Gavin Newsom
said California was now monitoring 8,400 people for possible infection.
But he sought to reassure the public that the risk of contracting the virus
remains low.
Newsom told reporters his team was working with the CDC on making improved
testing methods the top priority.
“We are not overreacting but nor are we underreacting to the understandable
anxiety,” he said.
He added the state had only 200 testing kits and had appealed for more from
the federal government. Redfield later told Congress more tests were on their
way.
Overall there are 61 cases in the US — including 46 people who were
repatriated from abroad.
More than 80,000 people have been infected worldwide and 2,800 have died,
mostly in China, where the virus originated late last year.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0900 hrs