Nine Patients Recently Tested for Ebola across the US
Several months ago, media and the Internet were saturated with stories about the potential for an Ebola outbreak in the US. For weeks, that was the lead story and then suddenly, the reports stopped. However, recent events should serve as a reminder that contagious diseases like Ebola still pose the potential for life-threatening conditions.
There have been at least nine patients who have been tested for the virus over the past several weeks, including patients in Ohio and New York. Two known Ebola patients are currently being treated in an Atlanta hospital. Both of those patients were actually transferred there from Liberia, where they had both been working with Ebola victims.
These incidents serve as a serious reminder that these contagious diseases still pose a serious – if not fatal – threat to those who work in emergency response and the medical field.
Emergency Film Group’s PPE for Ebola & Other Hazards: Protecting Healthcare Workers describes how to select the proper type of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), as required by OSHA, to use in order to protect healthcare workers from exposure to patients contaminated with Ebola or other infectious diseases, industrial chemicals, and biological and chemical warfare agents.
This program is designed to provide training and information about the use of protective clothing and equipment to EMS and hospital staff, first receivers, hazmat teams, law enforcement, and waste management workers.
Topics covered include:
- Routes of exposure;
- Respiratory protection;
- Details of PPE;
- Different ensemble classes;
- Proper donning and doffing protocols;
- Fitting storage and inspection of PPE;
- Avoiding heat injuries while wearing PPE; and
- Decontamination.