WHO Updates Guidelines on Ebola Protective Gear

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Sat, 2014-11-01 14:44 — mike kraft

WHO Oct. 31, 2014
GENEVA-- The World Health Organization \ WHO has conducted a formal review of personal protective equipment (PPE) guidelines for healthcare workers and is updating its guidelines in context of the current outbreak.

A U.S. doctor in a protective suit in Liberia adjust that of a colleague before entering an Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia in this photo released Sept. 16, 2014.

These updated guidelines aim to clarify and standardize safe and effective PPE options to protect health care workers and patients, as well as provide information for procurement of PPE stock in the current Ebola outbreak. The guidelines are based on a review of evidence of PPE use during care of suspected and confirmed Ebola virus disease patients.

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http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/ebola-ppe-guidelines/en/

See full guidelines
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/137410/1/WHO_EVD_Guidance_PPE_14.1_eng.pdf?ua=1&ua=1
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Eluding Ebola: Gear Matters, But Technique Matters More

By Maggie Fox

New guidelines for the personal protective equipment that health workers should have on when treating Ebola patients make clear that what you wear counts — but even more important is how you put it on and take it off.

And the guidelines that the World Health Organization updated Friday suggest only highly trained medical professionals should be taking on the dangerous job of caring for Ebola patients, say the country’s leading doctors at the National Institutes of Health.

Anybody could do this, but the training process is something that takes a lot of time,” Dr. Francis Collins, who heads the National Institutes of Health, told NBC News in an interview.

Treating Ebola patients does not have to be dangerous, Collins said. “But it takes a lot of time to make it safe.”

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