Gabrielle Cannon on how the government can protect health workers from Ebola: More than 200 nurses rallied outside the National Nurses Union headquarters in Oakland, California, on Tuesday, demanding more stringent protections from Ebola for healthcare workers. They carried signs reading Stop Blaming Nurses. Stop Ebola. and wore red stickers declaring I am Nina Pham and I am Amber Vinson—the names of the two nurses who contracted Ebola from Thomas Eric Duncan, the only person to have died from Ebola on American soil. (A fourth patient, a New York City doctor, was diagnosed yesterday.) The rally was one of many held around the country this week, organized by the NNU to press President Obama and lawmakers to mandate stronger protections for nurses and other healthcare workers treating Ebola patients. The NNU alleges that Pham and Vincent were exposed to the virus due to the lack of safety protocols at their hospital in Texas. In a survey conducted by the union, four out of five nurses reported they have not been instructed how to properly handle Ebola patients. While there was plenty of talk at the rally about the need to implement the recently issued recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control, no one mentioned the federal rules concerning Ebola that are already on the books—and how they could be better publicized and enforced. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has longstanding regulations on protecting workers from infectious diseases, including Ebola. Introduced in 1986, OSHAs Bloodborne Pathogen Standard is intended to keep healthcare workers from contracting HIV as well as Hepatitis C, malaria, syphilis, and viral hemorrhagic fevers (like Ebola). The standard requires hospitals to provide and require the use of protective equipment such as masks and face shields to ensure that blood or other potentially infectious materials do not touch workers clothes, skin, face, or mucous membranes. Julianne Sum, the acting chief of Cal/OSHA, Californias occupational safety division, says these rules exceed the recommendations currently being demanded by the nurses union. What was in place and what is still in place now are regulations, Sum says. The Bloodborne Pathogens Standard has been in place for over 30 years around the whole country. -Erika
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 19:23:00 +0000
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