The Following is VIA Yahoo.com
The missteps in Dallas’s handling of the first Ebola case diagnosed in the United States have revealed an uncomfortable reality: state and city plans for handling the deadly virus are based on generic recommendations for everything from measles to floods, to hurricanes and dirty bombs.
Even before Sunday’s news that a health worker who treated the Dallas case had herself contracted the disease, officials acknowledged they need to do more.
Reuters checks with health departments in six states and cities that have large West African communities, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City, Minnesota, New Jersey, Maryland and Rhode Island, show that they are scrambling to adapt those generic plans to Ebola.
If they are not able to stay one step ahead of any cases, then lapses that characterized Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan’s treatment in Dallas could recur. In the Texas case that led to unnecessary exposure to the victim.
“To think the first patients would go flawlessly are an overestimation of our systems,” said Dr. Craig Smith, medical director for infectious disease at University Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. “I would expect there would be a few stumbles.
As it turned out, those stumbles included infection of a Texas health worker who treated Duncan. The infected worker, identified as a woman but not named by authorities, is believed to be the first person to contract the disease in the United States.
In terms of preparedness around the United States, there is a lot to do: hospital drills, 911 emergency operator guidelines, quarantine rules, even details such as checking that plastic body bags meet the minimal thickness – 150 micrometers – recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It takes a certain amount of reverse engineering to get the plan to where it can respond to new, emerging threats,” said political scientist Chris Nelson, an expert on public health systems at Rand Corp.
While departments contacted by Reuters said they were confident they would be able to identify, treat and contain Ebola, “nobody is charged with reviewing all 2,800 departments’ plans,” said Jack Herrmann, chief of public health programs at the National Association of County & City Health Officials.
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One Response
1. The missteps
2. lapses that characterized Ebola
3. a few stumbles
4. would go flawlessly
5. reviewing all 2,800
ANYTHING BUT ADMIT YOU MESSED UP!!
Talk about biased media.
Defend the liberal administration at all costs.