UCSF Ebola Preparedness Harkens Back To Early Days Of AIDS
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - Officials at UCSF say its hospitals have prepared should someone at any of its facilities show signs of the Ebola virus, despite the very low risk of anyone contracting the disease locally.
Transmission of Ebola requires direct contact with infected bodily fluids, a risk that existing hospital procedures already address, said Amy Nichols, UCSF's director of hospital epidemiology and infection control.
"They're the same strategies that were in place in the early 80s when HIV came on the scene," she said.
Nevertheless, doctors and staff and all UC-related facilities have been reminded to observe protocols for contagious diseases, she said, now with an added emphasis on Ebola.
"Ebola has a very high mortality rate. It's around 50 percent, depending on the numbers you're looking at," she said. "That's frankly very scary. So we want to make sure that our people are safe, our healthcare workers are safe, and that we can provide safe care to an Ebola patient if they come here."