Ebola Threat In U.S., And We’re Not Prepared To Contain It, Experts Warn
” Mistakes and missteps in the handling of the first Ebola case in the United States trouble lawmakers, international organizations and some public health experts who say the government needs to step up its strategy to contain the virus.
“ Where is the 1-800-Ebola hotline?” asked Gavin MacGregor-Skinner, an assistant professor of public health at Penn State University who helped set up an Ebola treatment clinic in Nigeria a few weeks ago. “This is a Category 5 hurricane. It just happens to be viral.”
Doctors have diagnosed only one person with Ebola in the United States, but as many as 50 people might have been exposed to the virus in Dallas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Doctors at Howard University Hospital in Washington are monitoring a patient with Ebola-like symptoms who frequently traveled to Nigeria.
The raging epidemic has overwhelmed weak health systems in the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Although hospitals in the United States are better prepared to handle Ebola, travel restrictions or stricter screening of people coming to the United States from Ebola-affected countries might be necessary to curb the crisis, some health monitors said.
“ Unless the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention take extreme measures to prevent the universal spread of the disease, we could possibly end up with a pandemic,” said Phenelle Segal, president of Montgomery County-based Infection Control Consulting Services and a former infection prevention analyst for the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority.”
Further reading on the state of US preparedness …
Nurses union survey finds US hospitals widely unprepared for Ebola
Ebola in the U.S.: Are hospitals and health care workers prepared?
US hospitals ‘unprepared’ to safely handle infectious
INSIGHT-US hospitals unprepared to handle Ebola waste
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