A U.S. Ebola outbreak characterized more by fear than science marked by distrust, rumor and false assumptions may yet yield something positive: A rededication to basic infection control practices in the nations hospitals and increased support for infection prevention programs and public health.
While it has been duly noted that many hospitals lack the surge capacity and training to deal with an Ebola patient, the public health system is also ill prepared for emerging infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics, an expert in the field warns.
While infection preventionists in the nations hospitals are diverting time and resources to Ebola preparedness there is a real risk that a host of other infections from Clostridium difficile to MRSA will increase and claim many more American lives than the highly publicized virus out of West Africa.
With sincere apologies to the ghost of Winston Churchill, never in the field of infection prevention was so much purchased by so many to be worn by so few.
