A missionary returning from Africa is brought to the
emergency room one evening for high fever, vomiting, headache, confusion, and
bloody diarrhea. The patient is found to be febrile, slightly hypotensive, has
a nonpruritic rash on the neck and arms, and a nosebleed. What sort of
precautions should the ER physicians take if this patient is infected with the
virus shown below?
In responding to suspected cases of Ebola virus, health care workers should isolate patients, conduct contact tracing, and monitor the temperatures and symptoms of patient contacts for 21 days after exposure. Neither negative airflow, nor special respirators are essential, as the Ebola virus can only be transmitted from patients that already exhibit symptoms and infection only occurs upon direct contact with the blood or body fluids of an Ebola patient. However, meticulous attention to gown, glove, mask, and eye protections and great care while removing protective equipment are key. Soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizers effectively disrupt the envelope of the single-stranded RNA Ebola virus. Decontamination with dilute bleach is also effective.
ReplyDeleteThree preventive interventions include: 1) meticulous infection control in health care settings, 2) education and support for communities to modify long-standing local funeral practices to avoid contact with bodily fluids who have died from Ebola virus until the epidemic is controlled, and 3) avoiding handling of bush meat and contact with bats.
Source: Ebola 2014 – New Challenges, New Global Response and Responsibility. Thomas Frieden, Inger Damon, Beth Bell, Thomas Kenyon, Stuart Nichol. NEJM, August 20, 2014. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1409903