Abstract
Introduction. During the 2014–2016 West-African Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, some HCWs from Western countries became infected despite proper equipment and training on EVD infection prevention and control (IPC) standards. Despite their high awareness toward EVD, some of them could not recall the transmission routes. We explored these incidents by recalling the stories of infected Western HCWs who had no known directly exposures to blood/bodily fluids from EVD patients. Methodology. We carried out conventional and unconventional literature searches through the web using the keyword “Ebola” looking for interviews and reports released by the infected HCWs and/or the healthcare organizations. Results. We identified fourteen HCWs, some infected outside West Africa and some even classified at low EVD risk. None of them recalled accidents, unintentional exposures, or any IPC violation. Infection transmission was thus inexplicable through the acknowledged transmission routes. Conclusions. We formulated two hypotheses: inapparent exposures to blood/bodily fluids or transmission due to asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic carriers. This study is in no way intended to be critical with the healthcare organizations which, thanks to their interventions, put an end to a large EVD outbreak that threatened the regional and world populations.
Highlights
During the 2014–2016 West-African Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, some Healthcare workers (HCWs) from Western countries became infected despite proper equipment and training on EVD infection prevention and control (IPC) standards
HCW-A, a doctor caring for EVD patients, fell ill on 23 July 2014 and EVD was diagnosed four days later
HCW-B, a nurse who had no direct contact with EVD patients but assisted HCWs with donning and doffing protective equipment (PPE) and performing decontamination, was diagnosed with EVD on 27 July [9]
Summary
During the 2014–2016 West-African Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, some HCWs from Western countries became infected despite proper equipment and training on EVD infection prevention and control (IPC) standards. Despite their high awareness toward EVD, some of them could not recall the transmission routes. We explored these incidents by recalling the stories of infected Western HCWs who had no known directly exposures to blood/bodily fluids from EVD patients. The massive intervention of WHO and governmental and nongovernmental healthcare organizations from all over the world, with resources and “train-the-trainer” policies, improved this situation and the infectious risk among all HCWs decreased considerably, demonstrating that EVD infections among HCWs were preventable [2, 4, 5]
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