- Target:
- Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia
- Region:
- United States of America
The recent casual and occupational exposures to ebola hemmorrhagic fever in the United States and elsewhere, dramatically underscores the immediate need for the highest standards of biocontainment to be put into effect.
Ebola is a deadly biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) pathogen, requiring, at a minimum, hospital engineering and operational controls that involve strict facility guidelines, a well-trained staff, reporting procedures for accidental exposure, initial evaluation and triage of potential high-risk patients, along with isolation and containment of the disease. Additionally, exposure and control should extend to first-responders such EMTs, life-flight and ambulance drivers, police and fire fighters.
Risk assessments, disease surveillance tools and local education programs should be in place. Rat and rodent populations should be looked at as a possible source of disease entry and potential hosts as the pathogen is zoonotic. Recent events such as contaminated vomit left outside an apartment building where a known ebola patient was residing is a prime example of how rodents could be exposed to the pathogen.
As 75% of emerging diseases are zoonotic, it is imperative that United States health officials take heroic steps now to recognize that the world has become a much more complicated environment for man, animals and insects.
Federal and state governments with the most experience in biosurety should develop the protocols used by all citizens.
We, the undersigned, call on the Center for Disease Control, and all federal and state agencies charged with the biodefense of our borders and the health protection of our citizens, to review existing protocols, and develop optimal strategies to be used in the detection and management of BSL4 pathogens, specifically and currently, ebola hemmorrhagic fever.
We ask that government take seriously the need for coordinated action, including guidelines for engineering and operational controls for hospitals, staff training, proper triage and isolation measures, workshops and protocols for those cleaning biohazardardous waste, workshops and protocols for emergency workers, as well as strict infection control and education for local communities.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Stop the Spread of Ebola in the United States petition to Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia was written by Becki Grass and is in the category Health at GoPetition.