title: Sign me up: rules of the road for humanitarian volunteers during the Ebola outbreak.
abstract: The current Ebola outbreak is the worst global public health emergency of our generation, and our global health care community must and will rise to serve those affected. Aid organizations participating in the Ebola response must carefully plan to carry out their responsibility to ensure the health, safety, and security of their responders. At the same time, individual health care workers and their employers must evaluate the ability of an aid organization to protect its workers in the complex environment of this unheralded Ebola outbreak. We present a minimum set of operational standards developed by a consortium of Boston-based hospitals that a professional organization should have in place to ensure the health, safety, and security of its staff in response to the Ebola virus disease outbreak.
authors.affiliation: 1Partners Healthcare Risk and Insurance Services,Boston,Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wildes
authors.affiliation: 2Division of International Emergency Medicine and Humanitarian Programs,Department of Emergency Medicine,Brigham and Women's Hospital,Boston,Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kayden
authors.affiliation: 3Brigham and Women's Healthcare,Boston,Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Goralnick
authors.affiliation: 4Global Health Program,Boston Children's Hospital,Boston,Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niescierenko
authors.affiliation: 5Center for Global Health,Massachusetts General Hospital,Boston,Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aschkenasy
authors.affiliation: 6Partners HealthCare Emergency Preparedness,Boston,Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Katherine M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Kemen
authors.affiliation: 7Harvard Humanitarian Initiative,Boston,Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vanrooyen
authors.affiliation: 8Partners Healthcare and Massachusetts General Hospital,Boston,Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Biddinger
authors.affiliation: 5Center for Global Health,Massachusetts General Hospital,Boston,Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Hilarie
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cranmer
mesh_terms: D000533:Altruism; D054597:Disaster Medicine; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004864:Equipment and Supplies / Q000600:supply & distribution; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D014838:Volunteers
keywords: emergency responders