In response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is educating physicians and health care workers in the United States on how to diagnose the disease and advise travelers on protecting their health.
The Ebola hemorrhagic fever page on the CDC website contains information for health care workers, including diagnosis and testing, and specimen collecting, transport, testing and submission.
The CDC also supplied a Medscape “expert commentary” video (free account required) about the risk of Ebola to international travelers.
According to its website, the CDC is encouraging all U.S. health care professionals to:
- Ask patients about their travel histories to determine whether they have traveled to West Africa within the last three weeks.
- Know the signs and symptoms of Ebola: fever (greater than 38.6°C or 101.5°F) and additional symptoms, such as severe headache, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain or unexplained hemorrhage.
- Know what to do if they have a patient with Ebola symptoms:
- First, properly isolate the patient.
- Then, follow infection control precautions to prevent the spread of Ebola. Avoid contact with blood and body fluids of infected people.
For more information, read the CDC questions and answers page about Ebola.
Also, read two Viewpoints on Ebola published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Evaluating novel therapies during the Ebola epidemic” considers the ethical and scientific dilemmas that arise in evaluating the use of experimental therapies in an epidemic. And “Why should high-income countries help combat Ebola?” outlines the reasons why those countries have a duty to fight Ebola disease.
