News/Health: There Is A Surprise New Ebola Threat

*What happens to animals with Ebola? Dallas officials vow to care for Nina Pham’s dog 

HEALTH officials in Texas are faced with a second major dilemma amid the current Ebola crisis: What to do with the pet dog of the nurse who contracted the disease? Authorities are currently trying to find an appropriate place to monitor a dog that belongs to Nina Pham, the nurse who contracted the disease after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Duncan died last week after becoming the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S.

Ms Pham’s apartment is being thoroughly cleaned after tests over the weekend confirmed she is infected. A Dallas spokeswoman says the city will make sure the dog is cared for.
It comes following a public uproar in Spain after authorities elected to euthanise a dog named Excalibur that belonged to nursing assistant Teresa Romero who remains in hospital with the disease — despite the animal showing no signs of the virus.
Animal rights activists took to the streets in more than 20 cities to protest the decision, while a change.org petition gained more than 407,000 signatures online.
Another 16 people including Romero’s husband, colleagues and a hairdresser are being monitored for symptoms.
It's not yet known if dogs can catch and spread Ebola — a disease which is naturally found in fruit bats, according to the World Health Organisation.
A study from 2005 suggests there is a theoretical risk that dogs can pass the virus to humans and virologists recommend treading with caution.
Britain’s Warwick University professor Andrew Easton said: “The wise move is to ... assume they (dogs) do represent a risk to humans.”
Investigators studying a 2001 outbreak in Gabon found traces of Ebola antibodies in dogs — a sign that the animals had been infected at some point.
However it was unable to determine whether the dogs had picked up the virus from a natural source, such as bats, monkeys, apes — or from humans themselves. It also failed to answer whether they could infect humans.
“The answer is that we don’t know, because no one has actually studied it,” said Prof. Easton.
“But if those dogs are carrying the virus, they are definitely a potential source. They have to be considered a risk to anyone who handles the dogs or comes into close contact with secretions or faecal material from those dogs.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stressed there have been “no reports of pets becoming sick” or “playing a role in transmission of Ebola to humans”. It is working with the American Veterinary Medical Association and others to develop “guidance for the US pet population”.