In the United States, the transfer of Ebola-infected healthcare workers from the outbreak zone to US hospitals raised public awareness and fear of spread of the disease. As of January 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the total case count stands at 21,689 with 8,626 deaths and continues to rise. Yet despite significant efforts from the international community, EVD continues to represent a significant challenge in the region. Given the underdeveloped health infrastructures in the 3 primary affected nations and the high transmission and mortality rate of the disease, domestic and international public health agencies called for aid and personnel to be rapidly deployed to the affected nations to treat infected patients and prevent further spread of the Ebola outbreak. In March 2014, an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) was confirmed in the West African nation of Guinea with subsequent rapid spread to the neighboring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone. This paper will address areas of immediate and potential ethical concern to US emergency departments in how they approach preparation for and management of potential patients with EVD. To address these concerns, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Emergency Nurses Association and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine developed this joint position paper to provide guidance to US emergency physicians, emergency nurses and other stakeholders in the healthcare system on how to approach the ethical dilemmas posed by the outbreak of EVD. With the presentation of patients with Ebola to US acute care facilities, ethical questions have been raised in both the press and medical literature as to how US emergency departments, emergency physicians, emergency nurses and other stakeholders in the healthcare system should approach the current epidemic and its potential for spread in the domestic environment. The 2014 outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa has presented a significant public health crisis to the international health community and challenged US emergency departments to prepare for patients with a disease of exceeding rarity in developed nations.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |