When the first case of Ebola infection was diagnosed on U.S. soil in late September, Reuters had already identified a key area in which the nation was unprepared to safely handle cases of the deadly virus: Julie Steenhuysen exclusively reported that government agencies disagreed over how to handle the piles of infectious waste that result from caring for an Ebola patient. The story proved prescient. Only a few days later, Liberian traveler Thomas Duncan was diagnosed with the virus at a Dallas hospital, and local health authorities struggled to handle many aspects of his care, including removing waste from the hospital treating him and the apartment at which he stayed. Reuters was also first to report efforts by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Transportation to resolve the dilemma. In the coming weeks, reporters Julie Steenhuysen and Sharon Begley detailed, well ahead of our competitors, the other obstacles facing U.S. nurses, doctors and researchers as they contemplated their role in curbing the worst Ebola outbreak on record. A second article focused on how nurses nationwide feared they did not have the proper training to handle Ebola patients and use the head-to-toe protective clothing meant to prevent them from becoming infected. A third article studied local contingency plans to demonstrate how city and state government were unprepared for the many aspects of handling Ebola. A fourth story showed for the first time how hospitals were weighing the types of procedures they might not perform on an Ebola patient if the potential benefit was outweighed by the risk of exposing doctors and nurses to the devastating illness.
