The track record of the nation's hospitals in controlling other infections suggests a lot of them aren't prepared for Ebola, according to an article on the USA Today website.
Lapses in infection control procedures, including isolating contagious patients and cleaning contaminated equipment consistently rank among common hospital problems.
About one in every 25 patients get an infection while being treated in a U.S. hospital, which translates to more than 700,000 hospital-associated illnesses each year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Most infections are transmitted via contaminated equipment, rooms or caregivers — problems that would pose grave threats in treating Ebola, the article said.
Many violations involve healthcare workers failing to disinfect their hands or use protective gear properly. Surveyors have also observed personnel tracking blood across floors, wiping down equipment with dirty rags, using blood-testing equipment on successive patients without proper disinfection and failing to change "high-touch" room curtains for more than a year, the article said.
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