The CDC has updated its guidelines for protective Ebola gear

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued new guidelines for protective gear for those treating Ebola patients.

The announcement comes after two Dallas nurses contracted Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., who died of the disease. And last week, another nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Duncan was treated, said that the protective gear the nurses treating Duncan wore had a gap around the neck.

The CDC's new guidelines include full-body protective suits, including hoods to protect healthcare workers' necks. The guidelines also call for a "site manager" to ensure that workers put on and take off the protective gear correctly, adding that workers must know how to use the protective gear before being near Ebola patients.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said that the new guidelines provide an "extra margin of safety" for workers, particularly those in U.S. hospitals, where "more high-risk procedures might be used," according to The Associated Press. --Meghan DeMaria