The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) now has a state-of-the-art Biocontainment Care Unit designed to deal with highly infectious diseases, according to an article on the TMC website.
The 2014 to 2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa resulted in more than 28,600 cases and 11,325 deaths, including 11 people who were treated in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
The Galveston facility was built to serve Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico.
The new unit is separate from the general emergency room and has six patient rooms built with special surfaces and negative airflow to filter out infectious particulates as well as to ensure patient and health care worker safety.
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