Ugh! How Government Bureaucracy Prevented Dallas Hospital From Using Ebola Screening Machine on First Ebola Patient Thomas Eric Duncan

Teresa Neumann : Oct 17, 2014
Patrick Tucker – Defense One

The US military were on top of the game with a screening machine they had developed that can quickly diagnose Ebola. So why was it left sitting on a shelf in Dallas at the hospital where Thomas Eric Duncan was initially treated?

(Washington, DC)—In yet another glitch in the fiasco surrounding the Ebola outbreak in Dallas, Texas, it has been revealed that the US military has an Ebola screening machine that could have been used to diagnose Ebola cases much faster, but government guidelines prevent hospitals from using it to actually screen for the disease. (Photo via DefenseOne.com)

According to a report in Defense One by reporter Patrick Tucker, the toaster-sized box called "Film Array" is made by a company called BioFire and is capable of diagnosing Ebola in less than an hour.

"Incredibly," noted the report, "it was [sitting on a shelf] at Dallas Presbyterian Hospital when Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan walked through the door... Duncan was sent home, but even still FDA guidelines prohibited the hospital from using the machine to screen for Ebola."

CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden recently acknowledged limitations on current airport screening for Ebola and admitted he was open to ideas.

Asked Tucker, "What might those look like? Probably a great deal like the machine that the military is using to screen for Ebola in Africa right now."

Click here to read this eye-opening report in its entirety.