America’s Recent MERS Outbreak Highlights the Vulnerability of Hospitals
You walk into the hospital emergency room with one illness and leave with another. Sound like a familiar story?
You’re not alone and, in fact, this situation is one of the reasons behind the recent rapid spread of the MERS virus. Though it’s definitely not preferable to have a contagiously sick person in any situation where they’re surrounded by other people, hospitals are possibly the worst-case scenario — you’re coughing or sneezing or breathing sick germs onto other people you’re packed in tightly with, and those people all have compromised immune systems.
That’s the story of one man who recently returned from the Arabian Peninsula showing signs of a cold. He flew back to the United States feeling unwell and eventually made his way to the hospital, where he failed to mention his recent trip to Saudi Arabia and potentially spread his disease to other patients and healthcare workers in the emergency room. Without any red flags, he was released back home until his continually failing health landed him back in the hospital, where he tested positive as the second U.S. case of MERS, the mysteriously terrifying Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome.
It’s possible that the patient was unaware of news of the fast-spreading illness, which would explain why he didn’t mention his trip to the Middle East. Otherwise, the hospital staff would have taken measures to keep him from contaminating others -- Special masks, gowns, and gloves with immediate disposal policies and an isolation room for examination, for one thing. But, though the CDC is now taking strides to ensure that people are well aware of the situation, and though they have stated that “infection control is issue number one,” there are clearly factors outside of their control when it comes to stopping the spread of the disease. In a news conference, the World Health Organization’s Dr. Keiji Fukuda explained that a big part of the problem is due to human error and carelessness — and, as such, is totally fixable.
“There is a lot of good guidance,” he stated, referring to easy tasks such as washing hands in between seeing patients. “The most difficult thing about infection prevention and control is how to get them implemented on a general basis. This is true in every country in the world. It is simply a difficult thing to get people to do consistently.”
Luckily for all of us, it appears that MERS is not as dangerous as some of the other scary-sounding acronym diseases we’ve heard about lately. But please, please, please if you’re showing any sort of symptoms, do everyone else a favor and get yourself checked out. We’d rather not die an unattractive, Gwynnie-style death thanks to your laziness.
[Pic via Flickr - Emergency Brake]
