CDC updates Ebola guidance for EDs evaluating/managing travelers from West Africa

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has posted updated Ebola guidance for U.S. hospitals evaluating emergency department patients who have traveled from Sierra Leone, Guinea or Liberia in the past 21 days. The new recommendations differ for patients from Liberia, where the Ebola outbreak officially ended last month. While the guidance continues to recommend that all patients who recently lived in or traveled to any of the three countries who present to the ED with Ebola-compatible signs and symptoms be isolated in a private room and that public health officials and CDC be notified, CDC now recommends that hospitals follow standard hospital infection control practices and protocols for patients from Liberia. By contrast, the agency continues to recommend that stricter Ebola personal protective equipment be used for patients with Ebola-compatible signs and symptoms from Sierra Leone or Guinea, where the Ebola outbreak continues. CDC also has posted the latest U.S. entry screening process for travelers from West Africa. For more information on evaluating patients for Ebola risk, visit www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/healthcare-us/evaluating-patients.