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NY Times: Hospitals in the U.S. Get Ready for Ebola - However Hospital Administrators Are Questioning The Recommended Safety Protocols
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Hospitals in the U.S. Get Ready for Ebola
Hospitals nationwide are hustling to prepare for the first traveler from West Africa who arrives in the emergency room with symptoms of infection with the Ebola virus.
Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has said such a case is inevitable in the United States, and the agency this month issued the first extensive guidelines for hospitals on how recognize and treat Ebola patients.
The recommendations touch on everything from the safe handling of lab specimens to effective isolation of suspected Ebola patients. But one piece of advice in particular has roused opposition from worried hospital administrators.
The C.D.C. says that health care workers treating Ebola patients need only wear gloves, a fluid-resistant gown, eye protection and a face mask to prevent becoming infected with the virus. That is a far cry from the head-to-toe “moon suits” doctors, nurses and aides have been seeing on television reports about the outbreak.
Some hospital officials are skeptical of the new advice. “It’s not going to be enough for my health care workers to feel comfortable going into an isolation room,” said Peggy Thompson, the director of infection prevention at Tampa General Hospital.
[link to www.nytimes.com]
If I were in their shoes I would feel the same as that is far from the recommended protocols for dealing with a VHF such as Ebola...
USAMRIID’s MEDICAL MANAGEMENT OF BIOLOGICAL CASUALTIES HANDBOOK - Sixth Edition - April 2005
VIRAL HEMORRHAGIC FEVER
Isolation and Decontamination:
All VHF patients should be cared for using strict contact precautions, including hand hygiene double gloves, gowns, shoe and leg coverings, and faceshield or goggles. Airborne precautions should be instituted to the maximum extent possible. At a minimum, a fit-tested, HEPA filter-equipped respirator(such as an N-95 mask), a battery-powered, air-purifying respirator, or a positive pressure supplied air respirator should be worn by personnel sharing an enclosed space with or coming within six feet of a VHF patient. Multiple patients should be cohorted to a separate building or a ward with an isolated air-handling system. Ideally, VHF patients should be isolated in a negative pressure isolation room with 6-12 air exchanges per hour. Environmental decontamination is accomplished with hypochlorite or phenolic disinfectants.
[link to www.dhhr.wv.gov]
Thread: CDC, Australian DoD & Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health & USAMRIID State That Ebola is an Aerosol Virus & Transmittable via Inhalation
We have seen how well these "recommended" safety protocols (which are not requiring a respirator) have worked in West Africa (which has about 10% of the victims being doctors/nurses that were following these exact same protocols being recommended for the US).
Thread: Another Doctor Working to Control Ebola Dies in Sierra Leone (How are Doctors/Nurses ~10% of the Victims?)
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