Posted on 04/30/2005 1:15:34 PM PDT by neverdem
Dangerous mistakes at a hospital in Angola in recent days could undo the work of medical teams who have been battling an epidemic of the deadly Marburg virus, the World Health Organization reported on Friday.
Twice in the past week, doctors at the provincial hospital in the northern city of Uíge were exposed to blood from infected patients, and so are now at risk of developing the disease themselves. The virus causes a hemorrhagic fever that can be fatal within a week.
The outbreak in Angola, the largest on record, has killed 255 of the 275 people known to be infected. The epidemic was identified on March 21, but is believed to have started weeks or months earlier.
The recent incidents at the hospital in Uíge occurred even though virus experts from around the world, working there for a month, had personally scrubbed down the hospital wards with bleach and developed new systems meant to prevent lapses in infection control.
The Marburg virus is spread by contact with bodily fluids like blood, vomit and urine, so preventing exposure to those fluids is an essential part of stopping an epidemic.
"These high-risk exposures should not have occurred," the health organization said.
Two other mishaps threatened patients. In one, the report said, "the body of a deceased patient was left, uncleaned and uncollected, on an open ward for more than eight hours, placing hospital staff and other patients at risk."
In another case, staff members put a baby into the cot of a child who had just died of Marburg virus, without first disinfecting the cot.
All the mistakes were direct violations of the new procedures that the expert teams had set up to protect patients and health workers.
Health experts were beginning to say that the number of new cases seemed to be declining and that an end to the outbreak might be in sight. Sloppy practices at a hospital can quickly infect many people and add weeks to the time it takes to contain an epidemic, the W.H.O. said, warning that "infection control procedures at the hospital have been seriously compromised."
The agency acknowledged that some experts had urged that the hospital be closed. But, it said, closing the hospital could make matters worse, by depriving people of care and driving them to a private clinic where practices were even riskier than those at the hospital.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Marburg ping
Two other mishaps threatened patients. In one, the report said, "the body of a deceased patient was left, uncleaned and uncollected, on an open ward for more than eight hours, placing hospital staff and other patients at risk."
**Sounds like Kings County Hospital.
Thanks for the link.
Thanks for posting. Note that the article says that practices are riskier at the smaller clinics than they are at the hospital--this after two doctors and uncounted patients are placed at risk in the hospital!
I note that this article doesn't mention the hospital practice of mothers of children in the pediatric ward SHARING THE CARE of all the children...while a loving and neighborly act, one peds patient or one mother with Marburg, and they all have it.
Sorry, no good news anywhere here.
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