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.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
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
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreakSpeed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agencySpeed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Measles cases surge to 33-year highSpeed Read The infection was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 but has seen a resurgence amid vaccine hesitancy
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, changeSpeed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panelspeed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kidsSpeed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sickspeed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
-
US overdose deaths plunged 27% last yearspeed read Drug overdose still 'remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44,' said the CDC
