Tuesday, December 23, 2014

What clinicians need to know about Ebola

Here's a nice update from Mayo Clinic Proceedings. It is available as free full text. Concerning the shift in infection control recommendations the authors note:

Before transmission of EVD to health care workers in Dallas, the CDC’s position was that patients with EVD could be cared for safely in any hospital in the United States.2 The fact that 2 health care workers taking reasonable precautions acquired EVD in a US hospital has resulted in a paradigm shift. There is a new realization that although all health care facilities should be prepared to recognize and perform initial stabilization of a patient with EVD, subsequent care of the patient is extremely resource intensive and is best performed at a specialized center. The other lesson that we have learned from the Dallas experience is that although PPE is an important component of patient care, just having PPE available is not enough.

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