Containing Ebola Virus

One of the most important issues hospitals and other healthcare providers face when treating highly infectious patients is keeping other patients in the facility safe. Highly infectious patients easily transmit disease to other people, and PPE (personal protective equipment) may not be enough to protect patients if a particular infection is spread through respiratory droplets or otherwise able to spread through the air. This concern is coming to the forefront now that an Ebola victim is being transported to Emory University Hospital for treatment after they were infected caring for other victims in the African outbreak.

The CDC recommendations which came out Friday afternoon recommend hospital workers in charge of Ebola patients should wear gloves, a fluid-resistant gown, eye protection, and a face mask. Double sets of gloves, shoe covers, or leg covers are recommended if there is a large amount of blood or bodily fluid present. The PPE is then removed when the healthcare worker exits the room, placed into specially marked waste bags, and burned. Emory University Hospital has a special wing that is separate from the rest of the hospital that was created to treat patients of pandemics or bioterrorism attacks. Additionally, the Ebola patient will likely be quarantined in a negative-pressure room with isolated air flow, even though Ebola is not spread through the air.

Dr. William Schaffner, infectious disease specialist and preventative medicine professor at Vanderbilt University, reminds us that "the system for keeping bad germs under control is simple...The trick will be to do it rigorously at all times." An important lesson was learned in 2003 during the SARS outbreak: hospital workers will shortcut PPE because they were busy, "or because familiarity breeds if not contempt then casualness". Hopefully, history will not repeat itself once the Ebola patient arrives at Emory.

Sources
Article: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/08/01/337140082/how-u-s-hospitals-contain-deadly-germs-like-ebola-virus
Picture: http://app1.unmc.edu/nursing/heroes/images/heroesDoffingYourHospitalPPE-Poster2012.jpg