Personal Protective Equipment for Use in a Filovirus Disease Outbreak: Rapid Advice Guideline

Excerpt

These guidelines recognize that health workers must be protected at all times, not only because they are needed to deliver care and save lives during epidemics, but because they may unwittingly transmit pathogens if they are not properly protected.

These guidelines aim to provide the knowledge and advice needed to protect health workers against filovirus infections (Ebola, Marburg, etc.).

Effective protection requires adequate equipment and practices. The West African Ebola outbreak taught public health planners important lessons about how best to protect those providing clinical care. These lessons - of what works, what does not, what is most practical and effective - have been collated, assessed by experts in clinical care and infection control and form the basis for these recommendations. This is an important step forward in evidence-based protection and safety for health care delivery during outbreaks.