Dutch microbiologist: "US Ebola protocols are no good"

[Gert van der Hoek]

computertranslation

"US Ebola protocols are no good"

Added: Friday 17 Oct 2014

By editor healthcare Rinke van den Brink

In the United States, the domestic approach to Ebola is heavily criticized. Last night was a hearing in Congress with Thomas Frieden. He is the head of the CDC, the American National Institute for Health and the Environment (RIVM). "The frightening truth is that we can not guarantee security to our physicians and nurses in the front line " said the Texas Congressman Michael Burgess.

The criticism focuses mainly on the protocols that the CDC has prepared in case of a (possible) Ebola patient. Alexander Friedrich, head of the department of medical microbiology and infection at the Groningen University Medical Centre, debunks the American protocols.

"The American protocols have a level of safety that we use when we have an outbreak of flu or norovirus. But here we have a deadly virus, the levels of safety have serious shortcomings."

gloves and masks
In the CDC protocols, for example, the use of a single pair of gloves is prescribed. "We wear double gloves," said Friedrich.

"American protocols advice wearing masks for TB. They filter 95 to 97 percent of the air." Infection with Ebola is basically through body fluids and not through the air. "But around a patient ventilated in intensive care and who is carrying a variety of other devices, a cloud of virus particles can be present. Virus particles also can be present on the skin of the patient and they could get loose, especially if that skin is dry. In those specific circumstances, you can get ebola through the air, "said Friedrich.

"The Americans use TB masks that 3 to 5 percent of the virus particles can pass through. We use a mask that leaves nothing through and to be sure we put a second one over it."

Friedrich said that in the Emory Hospital in Atlanta, where the first three repatriated doctors and nurses were taken to, no contaminations were found . The CDC protocols there were at a much higher level of safety.

Read more, incl details regarding the US protocols: NOS.nl

 

[Dani]

Re: Dutch microbiologist: "US Ebola protocols are no good"

He's right. That's why my little local hospital ignored CDC guidelines when planning their Ebola response. I wish Texas Presbyterian had.