Recommended Infection Control Measures: 
Ebola Information for Health Professionals

10/21/2014

The CDC has issued guidance on the personal protective equipment (PPE) to be used by health care workers when managing patients with Ebola Virus Disease in U.S. hospitals.

• CDC: Ebola for Health Professionals
   

The new guidance emphasizes these three key principles for personal protective equipment (PPE):

1. Rigorous and repeated training: All health care workers undergo rigorous training and are practiced and competent with PPE, including taking it on and off in a systemic manner.
2. No skin exposure when PPE is worn: The guidance describes different options for combining PPE to allow a facility to select PPE for their protocols based on availability, health care personnel familiarity, comfort and preference while continuing to provide a standardized, high level of protection for health care personnel.
3. Trained monitor: All workers are supervised by a trained monitor who watches each worker taking PPE on and off.

CDC is reminding all employers and health care workers that PPE is only one aspect of infection control and providing safe care to patients with Ebola. Other aspects include five pillars of safety:

1. Facility leadership has responsibility to provide resources and support for implementation of effective prevention precautions.  Management should maintain a culture of worker safety in which appropriate PPE is available and correctly maintained, and workers are provided with appropriate training. 
2. Designated onsite Ebola site manager responsible for oversight of implementing precautions for health care personnel and patient safety in the health care facility.
3. Clear, standardized procedures where facilities choose one of two options and have a back-up plan in case supplies are not available.
4. Trained health care personnel: facilities need to ensure all health care providers practice numerous times to make sure they understand how to appropriately use the equipment.
5. Oversight of practices are critical to ensuring that implementation protocols are done accurately, and any error in putting on or taking off PPE is identified in real-time, corrected and addressed, in case potential exposure occurred.

Other resources

• CDC: Ebola (PPE) Training
  This website contains a video PPE demonstration, a presentation on health care personnel preparedness for Ebola in the U.S. by CDC.