The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working with other U.S. government agencies, the World Health Organization, and other domestic and international partners in an international response to the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa. This document summarizes key messages about the outbreak and the response. It will be updated as new information becomes available and distributed regularly. Resent updates shown in red.

<<< In this Document (Click/Tap on Graphic):


• Summary Key Messages

• Ebola Cases and Deaths (West Africa)

• Ebola in U.S. Healthcare Workers (in Liberia)
• Background on Ebola
• CDC Recommendations and Guidance
• What CDC is Doing

• CDC Foundation

• Stigma

• For More Information about Ebola

Prepared by the Joint Information Center, Emergency Operations Center, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Please share the document with others as appropriate. All right reserved.

Percutaneous sharp injuries can change a person’s life when staff are not educated properly on a new safety device.

Accrediting bodies (e.g, The Joint Commission, the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care) and regulatory organizations (e.g, OSHA, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) may survey for sharps safety during visits to health care facilities. Key points in a survey could include review of the exposure control plan, which must be in compliance with the federal legislation and should meet the criteria established in the Needle Stick Safety and Prevention Act which was signed into law in 2001. Surveyors also may look to ensure that sharps containers are located close to the point of use and glove boxes and personal protective equipment (PPE) are placed in convenient locations.

On June 16, 2014, Governor D. Malloy signed into law Public Act No. 14-203 which was passed through both the Connecticut Senate and House of Representatives which seeks to increase the number of patients who are tested for Hepatitis C, consistent with the announced goal of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The law will require licensed primary care physicians, advanced practice registered nurses, and physician assistants to offer to provide or order a Hepatitis C screening or diagnostic test for patients born between 1945 and 1965 when providing services to these patients. The requirement will not apply when a patient (1) is being treated for a life-threatening emergency, (2) has been offered previously or has received a Hepatitis C screening test, or (3) lacks capacity to consent to a Hepatitis C screening test. “Primary care” is defined in this new law to include family medicine, general pediatrics, primary care internal medicine, primary care obstetrics, or primary care gynecology, without regard to board certification.

The new Connecticut state law signed in June- Hepatitis C Testing...