Experts Say Texas Needs More Than Specialized Centers To Fight Ebola

AUSTIN - Texas nurses and hospital officials stepped up their requests for more Ebola-related training and protective gear Thursday, telling the first formal meeting of Gov. Rick Perry's infectious disease task force that specialized treatment centers would not do enough to prepare the state for future cases of the virus. Following preliminary task force recommendations released last week, health officials have established treatment centers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and through a partnership housed at the Methodist Medical Center in Richardson, a Dallas suburb. The arrangement calls for with Methodist to provide the facilities, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center will offer specialized staff and Parkland Hospital System will kick in nurses and lab technicians. Among other topics, the assembled experts talked about strategies for controlling misinformation, what to do if pregnant women contracts the virus and the slowness of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in updating guidelines for health workers dealing with the disease.