Perry Announces Second Ebola Treatment Facility

Gov. Rick Perry announced Tuesday that three health care providers in North Texas will partner to form an Ebola treatment facility, as recommended by the state’s infectious disease task force.

The UT Southwestern Medical Center will provide infectious disease physicians, the Methodist Hospital System will designate room at its campus in Richardson and the Parkland Hospital System will provide medical equipment in a team effort to contain the deadly Ebola virus, Perry said.

“In the event of another diagnosis this facility will allow us to act quickly to limit the virus’ reach and give patients the care they need in an environment where health care workers are specially trained and equipped to deal with the unique requirements of this disease,” Perry said.

The virus has infected two Texas health care workers and killed more than 4,000 people in West Africa. The first person in the U.S. diagnosed with Ebola, Thomas Eric Duncan, died Oct. 8 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

The move followed recommendations from an infectious disease task force led by Brett Giroir, chief executive of the Texas A&M Health Science Center. The task force called for the state to establish two Ebola treatment facilities and asked lawmakers to give health officials the legal power to restrict travel for people who may have been exposed to infectious disease.

The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston had already been designated an Ebola treatment facility.

This story was produced in partnership with Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Disclosure: Parkland Hospital and UTMB are corporate sponsors of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.