The third Ebola case in the USA turns out to be the second case of a health care worker contracting the disease after treating the first stricken patient in Dallas. This tells us something truly important: America's hospitals are unprepared for Ebola.
When the various American Ebola patients were retrieved from West Africa and returned to the USA for treatment, they were placed in one of the four hospitals designated for treatment of extremely dangerous diseases like Ebola. The staff in these hospitals knows quite well exactly how to use precautions to prevent further spread of the disease. No one there has caught the disease. When the first domestic case of Ebola appeared, the patient went to the hospital in Dallas and was treated there. While this is a fine hospital, it does not have staff that has been well trained in following the procedures for limiting the spread of Ebola. It is not that the information has not been given to the staff, but rather that they have not practiced it regularly. As with any new procedure, irregularities occurred and mistakes happened. The result is that we now have two healthcare workers who are stricken with Ebola.
What this ought to tell us is that any further Ebola patients should be evacuated to one of the four regional centers for Ebola treatment. Meanwhile the CDC should begin intensive training at more hospitals around the country so that there will be a regional center that can treat Ebola patients in every part of the nation. It will not be possible to train staff at all the nation's hospitals to handle Ebola properly, so we ought not to put those doctors and nurses at risk. Someone needs to take charge here and get this done.
When the various American Ebola patients were retrieved from West Africa and returned to the USA for treatment, they were placed in one of the four hospitals designated for treatment of extremely dangerous diseases like Ebola. The staff in these hospitals knows quite well exactly how to use precautions to prevent further spread of the disease. No one there has caught the disease. When the first domestic case of Ebola appeared, the patient went to the hospital in Dallas and was treated there. While this is a fine hospital, it does not have staff that has been well trained in following the procedures for limiting the spread of Ebola. It is not that the information has not been given to the staff, but rather that they have not practiced it regularly. As with any new procedure, irregularities occurred and mistakes happened. The result is that we now have two healthcare workers who are stricken with Ebola.
What this ought to tell us is that any further Ebola patients should be evacuated to one of the four regional centers for Ebola treatment. Meanwhile the CDC should begin intensive training at more hospitals around the country so that there will be a regional center that can treat Ebola patients in every part of the nation. It will not be possible to train staff at all the nation's hospitals to handle Ebola properly, so we ought not to put those doctors and nurses at risk. Someone needs to take charge here and get this done.
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