Australia’s chief medical officers will meet in Sydney on Thursday to discuss the safety of the nation’s health workers after authorities in the United States upgraded the initial guidelines for workers exposed to Ebola.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new recommendations for American health workers overnight.
The CDC guidance was expected to be released as early as Saturday, but was pushed back while being reviewed by experts and US officials.
There are growing calls for more consistency and coordination across the Australian health system after two Dallas nurses became infected while caring for the America’s first Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan.
“The nurses… went by the protocol,” Dr Anthony Fauci from the US Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said.
“They got infected. Right now those protocols are being changed.”
US health workers are now being advised to keep their skin completely covered and to be supervised when putting on and removing protective equipment.
CDC director Dr Tom Frieden conceded that some previously recommended procedures – such as intubation – could increase the risk of exposure.
“The greatest risk in Ebola care is in the taking off of whatever equipment a health care worker has on,” Dr Frieden said.
He said the use of protective equipment needed to be “ritualised” and stressed the need for “standardised equipment”.
Currently, each Australian state and territory has different guidelines for hospital workers who deal with infectious diseases.
The New South Wales health department will overhaul its infection control procedures to the highest possible standards to prevent the highly contagious virus from spreading in the event of an outbreak in this country.
All states and territories are likely to follow suit after Thursday’s meeting.
Professor Sharon Lewin from Melbourne’s Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity said the lack of consistency across the country was creating some confusion.
“The most important thing is really good coordination and sharing of information,” Professor Lewin said.
“You want to have a very clear message to our health care workers of how we plan to ensure that they’re in a safe environment.”