Cities Across America Are Realizing They Need To Up Their Ebola Plans
Sharon Begley and Yasmeen Abutaleb, Reuters
BusinessInsider.com
Oct. 12, 2014
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The missteps in Dallas’s handling of the first Ebola case diagnosed in the United States have revealed an uncomfortable reality: state and city plans for handling the deadly virus are based on generic recommendations for everything from measles to floods, to hurricanes and dirty bombs.
Even before Sunday’s news that a health worker who treated the Dallas case had herself contracted the disease, officials acknowledged they need to do more.
Reuters checks with health departments in six states and cities that have large West African communities, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City, Minnesota, New Jersey, Maryland and Rhode Island, show that they are scrambling to adapt those generic plans to Ebola.
If they are not able to stay one step ahead of any cases, then lapses that characterized Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan’s treatment in Dallas could recur. In the Texas case that led to unnecessary exposure to the victim.
“To think the first patients would go flawlessly are an overestimation of our systems,” said Dr. Craig Smith, medical director for infectious disease at University Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. “I would expect there would be a few stumbles.”
As it turned out, those stumbles included infection of a Texas health worker who treated Duncan. The infected worker, identified as a woman but not named by authorities, is believed to be the first person to contract the disease in the United States.
In terms of preparedness around the United States, there is a lot to do: hospital drills, 911 emergency operator guidelines, quarantine rules, even details such as checking that plastic body bags meet the minimal thickness – 150 micrometers – recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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