With an Ebola outbreak in the Congo, experts say healthcare providers should review their Ebola response plans now to avoid repeating past mistakes, according to an article on the Infection Control Today website.
“We certainly do not want to imitate chicken little and proclaim that ‘the sky is falling!’ but at the same time I would venture to say that many of our front line responders do not know that Ebola is flaring again in Africa,” said Patricia Abbott, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, who served on a national panel that reviewed the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Ebola response and issued a report in 2015.
There are ways hospitals and medical facilities can prepare, Abbott said. Administrators should make health care workers aware that Ebola is active again, and to brush up on what was learned in the fall of 2014.
“Situational awareness” is essential, Abbott said, especially in major cities like Detroit or Dallas, both home to international airports and diverse populations. “I would venture to say that right now if you walked into an emergency department with symptoms of Ebola, it’s not the first thing that would come to mind,”
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