Academic Institutions' Critical Guidelines for Health Care Workers Who Deploy to West Africa for the Ebola Response and Future Crises.
The unprecedented Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa, with its first cases documented in March 2014, has claimed the lives of thousands of people, and it has devastated the health care infrastructure and workforce in affected countries. Throughout this outbreak, there has been a critical lack of health care workers (HCW), including physicians, nurses, and other essential non-clinical staff, who have been needed, in most of the affected countries, to support the medical response to EVD, to attend to the health care needs of the population overall, and to be trained effectively in infection protection and control. This lack of sufficient and qualified HCW is due in large part to three factors: 1) limited HCW staff prior to the outbreak, 2) disproportionate illness and death among HCWs caused by EVD directly, and 3) valid concerns about personal safety among international HCWs who are considering responding to the affected areas. These guidelines are meant to inform institutions who deploy professional HCWs.
1Center for Global Health,Massachusetts General Hospital,Boston,Massachusetts.
Hilarie
H
Cranmer
1Center for Global Health,Massachusetts General Hospital,Boston,Massachusetts.
Miriam
M
Aschkenasy
2International Risk Management,Partners Healthcare Risk and Insurance Services,Boston,Massachusetts.
Ryan
R
Wildes
3Division of International Emergency Medicine and Humanitarian Programs,Department of Emergency Medicine,Brigham and Women's Hospital,Boston,Massachusetts.
Stephanie
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6545-6469
S
Kayden
4Center for Global Health,Massachusetts General Hospital,Harvard Medical School,and Harvard School of Public Health,Boston,Massachusetts.
David
D
Bangsberg
5Global Health Program,Boston Children's Hospital,Boston,Massachusetts.
Michelle
M
Niescierenko
6Emergency Preparedness,Partners HealthCare,Boston,Massachusetts.
Katie
K
Kemen
7Department of Global Health and Population,Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Kai-Hsun
KH
Hsiao
8Humanitarian Academy at Harvard,Harvard Humanitarian Initiative,Cambridge,Massachusetts.
Michael
M
VanRooyen
9Harvard Humanitarian Initiative,Harvard University,Cambridge,Massachusetts,and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,Washington,DC.
Frederick M
FM
Burkle
10Partners HealthCare and Department of Emergency Medicine,Massachusetts General Hospital,Boston,Massachusetts.
Paul D
PD
Biddinger
D000354:Africa, Western; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000379:methods; D054597:Disaster Medicine / Q000379:methods; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards; D019142:Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D017758:Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional / Q000517:prevention & control
decision making; disaster medicine; disease outbreaks; emergency preparedness; organizational; relief work