How did the practices of the hospital in Maridi contribute to the spread of the disease? How
can the medical community intensify an outbreak of infectious disease?
The hospital in Maridi used dirty needles, (Preston 74) meaning they repeatedly used the same needles on various people without cleaning them after using it. While the needle appears clean, small, leftover amounts of blood stayed inside the needle. A large amount of viruses can remain in one drop of blood: Preston mentions a hundred million polio viruses can fit in the period of a book (Preston 65). The carelessness of the medical community creates more harm than good because they inadvertently open themselves and their patients to infection and other mistakes. Research on wrong-patient and wrong-site procedures received results that 20% of people were hurt in wrong-patient procedures and about 36% were injured in wrong-site procedures. About 1% of people died in a wrong-site setting, and most of the problems for wrong-patient procedures came from errors in diagnosis errors in communication, and wrong-site problems came from errors in judgement and not taking a time-out (Stahel et al). The medical community is responsible for these avoidable mistakes. The surgeons adhere the Universal Protocol set in place for surgeries, but nonsurgical specialties do not know them and are not able to follow a set of rules they do not know. The report came in 2010, not old and not new, and changes may be placed to expand the Universal Protocol to all medical fields. Historically, doctors would not wash their hands before delivering a baby, and put the baby’s and mother’s life at risk, but after they started the practice, mortality rates dropped.
Preston, R. (1994). The hot zone. New York, New York: Random House.
Stahel PF, Sabel AL, Victoroff MS, Varnell J, Lembitz A, Boyle DJ, Clarke TJ, Smith WR, Mehler PS. (2010, October 1). Result Filters. Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20956767
Because of the outbreak of infectious diseases from unsanitary methods hospitals take, many new precautions have been taken to prevent any more diseases to be spread. As Angel mentioned the hospital is Maridi used dirty needled to give people vaccinations which meant that a “person before [you] could be carrying the disease” (Preston 74) which could then mean you would be infected as well from the needle. Hospitals today require nurses to use clean needles whenever giving someone a shot and during flu season, the flu shot is given to each individual in a sterilized way. Using an alcohol pad to clean the vaccination area can significantly reduce any infection due to dirt around the area and using new, clean needles on each person reduces the risk of infectious diseases to be spread.
Hi Nishrat, I do believe that the measures were already set worldwide to use clean needles, its just that this particular hospital could not afford them (as is the case in many still developing countries).
The World Health Organization suffered from budget cuts, and lost many of its brightest people (Sun et al). The WHO only declared a global emergency 4 months after the epidemic. The African office did not welcome the CDC because they had no idea of the danger posed by the Ebola virus. The director of the WHO's Department of Emergency Risk Management and Humanitarian Response, Richard Brennan, acknowledged a reaction could have been made sooner, but defended himself: the outbreak is beyond any previous outbreaks, contained in towns or small regions in Africa. West Africa’s civil war and poverty add to the unpreparedness of the medical community to respond to such an epidemic. Local customs require handling the dead, which also led to more disease, but is beyond the control of the medical community as the customs of the locals must be respected.
Lena H. Sun, Brady Dennis, Lenny Bernstein, Joel Achenbach. (2014, October 4). How Ebola sped out of control. Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/10/04/how-ebola-sped-out-of-control/
The hospital in Maridi used dirty needles, (Preston 74) meaning they repeatedly used the same needles on various people without cleaning them after using it. While the needle appears clean, small, leftover amounts of blood stayed inside the needle. A large amount of viruses can remain in one drop of blood: Preston mentions a hundred million polio viruses can fit in the period of a book (Preston 65). The carelessness of the medical community creates more harm than good because they inadvertently open themselves and their patients to infection and other mistakes. Research on wrong-patient and wrong-site procedures received results that 20% of people were hurt in wrong-patient procedures and about 36% were injured in wrong-site procedures. About 1% of people died in a wrong-site setting, and most of the problems for wrong-patient procedures came from errors in diagnosis errors in communication, and wrong-site problems came from errors in judgement and not taking a time-out (Stahel et al). The medical community is responsible for these avoidable mistakes. The surgeons adhere the Universal Protocol set in place for surgeries, but nonsurgical specialties do not know them and are not able to follow a set of rules they do not know. The report came in 2010, not old and not new, and changes may be placed to expand the Universal Protocol to all medical fields. Historically, doctors would not wash their hands before delivering a baby, and put the baby’s and mother’s life at risk, but after they started the practice, mortality rates dropped.
ReplyDeletePreston, R. (1994). The hot zone. New York, New York: Random House.
Stahel PF, Sabel AL, Victoroff MS, Varnell J, Lembitz A, Boyle DJ, Clarke TJ, Smith WR, Mehler PS. (2010, October 1). Result Filters. Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20956767
Because of the outbreak of infectious diseases from unsanitary methods hospitals take, many new precautions have been taken to prevent any more diseases to be spread. As Angel mentioned the hospital is Maridi used dirty needled to give people vaccinations which meant that a “person before [you] could be carrying the disease” (Preston 74) which could then mean you would be infected as well from the needle. Hospitals today require nurses to use clean needles whenever giving someone a shot and during flu season, the flu shot is given to each individual in a sterilized way. Using an alcohol pad to clean the vaccination area can significantly reduce any infection due to dirt around the area and using new, clean needles on each person reduces the risk of infectious diseases to be spread.
DeleteHi Nishrat, I do believe that the measures were already set worldwide to use clean needles, its just that this particular hospital could not afford them (as is the case in many still developing countries).
DeleteHi Angel, how did the medical community contribute to the spread on Ebola in West Africa during this last outbreak?
DeleteThe World Health Organization suffered from budget cuts, and lost many of its brightest people (Sun et al). The WHO only declared a global emergency 4 months after the epidemic. The African office did not welcome the CDC because they had no idea of the danger posed by the Ebola virus. The director of the WHO's Department of Emergency Risk Management and Humanitarian Response, Richard Brennan, acknowledged a reaction could have been made sooner, but defended himself: the outbreak is beyond any previous outbreaks, contained in towns or small regions in Africa. West Africa’s civil war and poverty add to the unpreparedness of the medical community to respond to such an epidemic. Local customs require handling the dead, which also led to more disease, but is beyond the control of the medical community as the customs of the locals must be respected.
DeleteLena H. Sun, Brady Dennis, Lenny Bernstein, Joel Achenbach. (2014, October 4). How Ebola sped out of control. Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/10/04/how-ebola-sped-out-of-control/
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