Are Health Care Workers Exposure and Infection Rates for Ebola Higher Than

Non-Health Care Workers?

By: Emily Caputo
Ebola has been a popular topic in the news ever since the start of its
outbreak. According to a recent MMWR report titled Ebola Virus Disease in
Health Care Workers- Guinea 2014, beginning in Guinea in December 2013,
the deadly Ebola outbreak continued through September 2015. There are
various reasons that health care workers in West Africa are at high risk for
Ebola, including accommodations set up to treat patients, the cleanliness of
equipment, and how well the spread of infection is contained.
Regarding patients with Ebola, the most common job titles of health care
workers were doctors, nurses and techs. Techs are medical technicians who
work in the labs testing samples, as well as aid the doctors and nurses.
Because they are making close personal contact with infected patients, they
are more susceptible to infection themselves. Techs had the highest
incidence rate (34.7 per every 1,000 people). Next were doctors, (26.6 per
1,000) and last were nurses (5.5 per every 1,000).
Data from the National Viral Hemorrhagic Fever surveillance regarding
infections were reviewed for healthcare workers in Guinea from January 1December 31, 2014. Throughout 2014, 162 (7.9%) of 2,210 cases of Ebola
amongst adults older than 15 occurred among health care workers.
Information from the census and the Guinea Ministry of Health was used to
create an incidence of infection among health care workers that was 42.2
times higher than non-health care workers.
Health care workers who had confirmed and probable cases of Ebola had a
higher chance of being male than non-health care workers. Most of the cases
in both groups had ages from 15-49 years old. The ministry of health is
working on gaining more training and having more personal protective
equipment.
These Ebola outbreaks are highly important to focus on in general, but
especially when they involve healthcare workers. The positive effects of this
would help a lot when identifying factors like infection prevention. If
education on topics like procedures to contain outbreaks by increasing
sanitation were to be implemented, it could really help in decreasing the
amount of Ebola outbreaks among healthcare workers.
This study was extremely important because it informed officials that
changes need to be made to reduce the amount of infected healthcare
workers. Ebola has killed many people, destroying families and communities.
What makes it even more upsetting is the fact that healthcare workers who
are trying to help are getting infected and dying at a much faster rate than

non-healthcare workers. Many people are studying to enter the healthcare

field. This gives us even more of a reason to find effective ways to combat
infection when dealing with any kind of infections disease.
While we may not be dealing with outbreaks of Ebola here at Monmouth,
there are still health concerns that need to be addressed, such as the flu. The
fact that people live in such close quarters at Monmouth allows for sickness
to be spread quicker and easier, especially when talking about person to
person contact. If outbreaks can be contained at the source, there would be
less infections among everyone, including healthcare workers.