Second Nurse Infected with Ebola Was on Jetliner Before Diagnosis

A second Texas nurse who has tested positive for Ebola was on a commercial jetliner from Cleveland to Dallas the night before she arrived at the hospital with a fever and was later diagnosed with the deadly virus, officials said today.

The nurse, who has been identified as nurse Amber Vinson, was part of the team at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who took care of Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who died of Ebola on Oct. 8. She is the second member of the hospital staff to contract the virus and a Dallas official warned today that additional cases among the hospital's health care workers is a "very real possibility."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reaching out to the 132 passengers who flew with the woman on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 on Monday evening, landing in Dallas at 8:16 p.m. Although according to crew members the health care worker had no symptoms during the flight, the CDC is identifying and notifying passengers because she arrived at the hospital with a fever the following morning.

Once it landed in Dallas, the plane was cleaned for the evening before flying out the next day, according to a statement from Frontier Airlines, which said its procedures are "consistent with CDC guidelines." It was cleaned again in Cleveland the following night.

“The fight against Ebola in Dallas is a two-front fight now,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said, speaking at a morning press conference.

Authorities said they are now tracking 75 people following the second hospital worker’s diagnosis. The unidentified health care worker reported a fever Tuesday and was isolated at the hospital, authorities said.