HealthDay News — Best practices regarding Ebola have been released by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, providing a general reminder to health-care providers and travelers on the infectious disease.
The CDC has confirmed the first diagnosis of Ebola in the United States in a patient who had traveled to Dallas, Texas from West Africa. Although “even a single case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States raises concerns,” the CDC wrote in a press release, “knowing the possibility exists, medical and public-health professionals across the country have been preparing to respond.”
Clinicians are urged take a travel history from any patient presenting with symptoms of viral infection. Ebola should be considered in patients who develop fever greater than 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit, severe headache, muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, or unexplained bruising or bleeding 21 days after traveling from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, or Sierra Leone.
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In such cases, health-care providers should immediately take infection-control precautions and contact their state or local health department if they have questions.
“We know how to stop Ebola’s further spread: thorough case finding, isolation of ill people, contacting people exposed to the ill person, and further isolation of contacts if they develop symptoms,” wrote the agency.
