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US Ebola treatment centers offer limited capacity
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Recent survey results published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology showed that Ebola treatment centers in the United States provide 0.38 beds per million people.
“We have strengthened our nation’s ability to properly contain a highly unlikely outbreak of Ebola,” John J. Lowe, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said in a press release. “However, the ability to treat outbreaks of other infectious viruses which are airborne, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome would be challenging.”
After the 2014 Ebola outbreak that killed one patient and hospitalized two health care workers in the U.S., the CDC established Ebola treatment centers (ETCs) at 55 hospitals. In April, Lowe and colleagues sent a 19-question electronic survey to 55 ETCs. The survey asked the centers about their capacity, negative-pressure rooms, separate air handling units, physical barriers separating isolation rooms, high-efficiency particulate air filtration, entrances and exits to the isolation units, and processes for sterilization of medical waste.
Forty-seven ETCs responded to the survey. Among them, there are 84 isolation beds for adults and 91 for children. Of the children’s beds, 35 are located in children’s hospitals. Based on the population estimate of the U.S. census, there are 0.38 beds per million people, according to the researchers. The majority of ETCs have negative-pressure isolation rooms, anterooms and a process for category A waste sterilization. Only 11 facilities can sterilize waste on site, as the cost for installing waste disposal equipment is about $100,000.
Lowe and colleagues recommended continued investigation into whether the U.S. has provided enough resources and staffing for ETCs. They wrote that the current ETCs would be able to handle a potential Ebola outbreak, but questioned whether they could handle an outbreak of a more contagious disease.
“Given the more than 121 simultaneous available beds nationwide, it is probable that the ability to control and treat a national outbreak of Ebola virus disease is adequate,” the researchers wrote, “whereas, controlling and treating an airborne highly infectious disease would be challenging.” – by Will Offit
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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