As American passengers exposed to Hantavirus continue to be monitored in Nebraska, top US public health expert, Dr. Shawn Gibbs, from Texas A&M University, is shedding light on how the United States' specialised, high-security quarantine facility uses advanced engineering controls, epidemiological investigations and rapid-response treatment systems to contain dangerous pathogens while protecting both patients and healthcare workers. An industrial hygienist who helped design the facility in Nebraska, he explains that the unit was specifically built to safely monitor people who may have been exposed to dangerous infectious diseases, before they begin showing symptoms.
"The National Quarantine Unit is the United States' singular quarantine unit. It's available for the federal government to send individuals for quarantine who may have been exposed to a patient with a high-consequence infectious disease or a high-consequence pathogen. It's designed and operates like a hotel, but it has a whole lot of what we call engineering controls to make sure that any potential pathogens don't come out of the facility," he tells AP.
Dr. Gibbs explains, "Essentially, with these facilities, one of the benefits you have is you're able to move people prior to them testing positive or developing symptoms. This drastically increases their chances for survivability. If you have someone that you're monitoring and you're monitoring them closely and they test positive, then you can move them to a facility where they can immediately start treatment. This greatly increases survivability odds."
And he swears by the state-of-the-art mechanisms put in place: "So the engineering controls are what's really important in these facilities. So you have HEPA-filtered air. You also have directional airflow. You also have essentially rooms that are made to be disinfected. These are very secure facilities."
Reducing risk to a minimal for the work they're doing, was a factor given utmost importance when the facility was being designed. Dr. Gibbs adds, "So essentially these are higher levels of protection to protect the healthcare workers or the individuals who are participating in the epidemiological investigation of these individuals so that they can do their job safely without endangering themselves, seriously reducing the risk."
Aalokitaa Basu is a writer and Senior Copy Editor whose work explores the intersection of lifestyle, culture, beauty, wellness, and self-possession. H...View More
Source: India Latest News, Breaking News Today, Top News Headlines | Times Now
