Staff at Governor Perry’s office have told healthcare workers that, in congruence with federal law, the Centers for Disease Control is leading the effort to combat Ebola–but privately admit that the CDC has made hardly any effort to do so.
The CDC maintains a quarantine station in Dallas, as well as in Houston; and yet they have not moved suspected Ebola patients to these facilities.
Not only are hospitals and state agencies unable to afford hazmat suit for medical staff, but most suppliers are out of stock. This comes after the U.S. Department of State recently ordered 160,000 hazmat suits and 5,000 body bags.
◼ Ebola Has Killed More Than 200 Doctors, Nurses, And Other Healthcare Workers Since June - Forbes
The allegations that the Dallas nurses didn’t have sufficient protections against Ebola are disturbing — more on those in a second — but the infection pattern keeps with a sad trend: A disproportionate number of people who were sickened with Ebola in West Africa were health care workers, too.
Doctors Without Borders this week said that 16 of its staff had contracted Ebola in the current outbreak, and nine had died from the disease. Dr. Sheik Umar Khan, the doctor who heroically led Sierra Leone’s fight against Ebola, got sick and died in July; his colleagues opted not to give him the experimental ZMapp cocktail, which appears to have helped treat several Ebola patients....Around the globe, about 400 health care staff have contracted Ebola, and more than 230 have died....
According to Texas Health nurses, they had no clear understanding of the protocols to treat Ebola patients. As Sarah Kliff details at Vox, trying to follow a visual guide to don and remove gear designed to protect against Ebola requires 21 separate steps and is a long, intense process.
◼ Dr. Sanjay Gupta suits up & removes personal protective equipment that the CDC recommends when treating an Ebola patient - CNN
◼ It gets worse. - Ace Of Spades
