Records: Presbyterian workers treated Ebola patient without hazmat gear

[herding cats]

Records: Presbyterian workers treated Ebola patient without hazmat gear

Health care workers treating Thomas Eric Duncan in a hospital isolation unit didn’t wear protective hazardous-material suits for two days until tests confirmed the Liberian man had Ebola — a delay that potentially exposed perhaps dozens of hospital workers to the virus, according to medical records.
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The 3-day window of Sept. 28-30 is now being targeted by investigators for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the key time during which health care workers may have been exposed to the deadly virus by Duncan, who died Oct. 8 from the disease.

Duncan was suspected of having Ebola when he was admitted to a hospital isolation unit Sept. 28, and he developed projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea later that day, according to medical records his family turned over to The Associated Press.

But workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas did not abandon their gowns and scrubs for hazmat suits until tests came back positive for Ebola about 2 p.m. on Sept. 30, according to details of the records released by AP.

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/presbyterian-workers-wore-no-protective-gear-for-two-days-while-treating-ebola-patient.html/

While I can't reason out why or how the hospital thought this was acceptable practice, it does remove some of the mystery about why the healthcare workers are getting sick. I won't be surprised if there ends up being even more such shocking details exposed.

[LisaL]

1. Why did the hospital think it was acceptable practice?

Maybe because CDC guidelines do not require hazmat suits.