Rapid Detection and Response Are Essential to Stopping Ebola

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Wed, 2015-02-18 15:44 — mike kraft

THE HUFFINGTON POST by Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Feb. 18, 2015

The recent drop in Ebola cases in Liberia is welcome. Many factors are contributing to this decline, including the adoption of safe burials and the emphasis on quickly getting patients into Ebola treatment units or community care centers and community initiatives to isolate and care for patients and track contacts.

One promising development has been Liberia's creation of RITE teams (short for Rapid Isolation and Treatment of Ebola). These teams are slowing the epidemic, and CDC is working closely with governments and partners in Guinea and Sierra Leone to adopt similar rapid response strategies....

The RITE teams were jointly created by the Liberian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, CDC, WHO, and UNICEF with the goal of moving quickly into communities where active Ebola transmission is suspected. Their key job is to rapidly identify and isolate those suspected of having Ebola and their contacts, and to collect and arrange transport of specimens for laboratory confirmation. While in the community, they meet with leaders to provide education and support and promote safe burials. Since creation of these teams, they have investigated more than 15 hotspots, and curtailed outbreaks that could otherwise have resulted in hundreds of cases, stopping spread after one or two generations of spread instead of many -- meaning that there were clusters of five to 25 cases instead of outbreaks of many dozens or hundreds of cases.

Read complete article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-frieden-md-mph/rapid-detection-and-respo_b_6705258.html

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