After the bitter experience of two nurses contracting the Ebola virus while taking care of a liberian victim, the US authorities have now come out with a strict set of guidelines aimed at protecting health care personnel attending to patients admitted to hospitals with the deadly infection.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has come under intense attack because of its relatively weaker protocols and guidelines earlier on, issued the new regulations on Monday.
The revised procedures are modelled on the ones used by Doctors Without Borders, the international humanitarian organisation that has been working extensively among Ebola victims in the worst-hit West African nations of liberia, Sierra leone and Guinea.
Since it started its Ebola response in the three countries in March this year, the organisation has dealt with more than 4,500 patients, over 2,700 of them confirmed with the Ebola virus. About 1,000 of these victims are reported to have survived.
Among the changes adopted by the CDC is the provision that no skin of the health worker should be left uncovered while handling an Ebola victim. They also dictate the use of waterproof fabric and boots and lay down step-by-step procedures for wearing and taking off equipment which, additionally, have to be down under the watchful eyes of a well-trained supervisor.
CDC Director Thomas Frieden says the new instructions “provide an increased margin of safety”. Complete skin coverage is of the essence for health care personnel. “Goggles are no longer recommended as they may not provide complete skin coverage in comparison to a single use disposable full face shield,” according to the new guidelines posted on the CDC’s website.
Meanwhile, an unnamed Ebola patient, admitted to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on September 9 after contracting the virus in West Africa, has been discharged after blood tests showed that he is now free of the deadly virus.