# 7387
With a COCA Call scheduled for tomorrow afternoon on the MERS-CoV (see Reminder: CDC MERS-CoV COCA Call Thursday), the CDC has been busy over the past week producing and/or updating their guidance documents on handling suspected or confirmed cases that may show up in the United States (see CDC HAN: Updated Guidelines For Evaluation Of MERS-CoV).
Yesterday they published their interim infection control advice.
Interim Infection Prevention and Control Recommendations for Hospitalized Patients with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV)
Standard, contact, and airborne precautions are recommended for management of hospitalized patients with known or suspected MERS-CoV infection. These recommendations are consistent with those recommended for the coronavirus that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). As information becomes available, these recommendations will be re-evaluated and updated as needed.
These recommendations for infection prevention and control for hospitalized patients who meet the case definition for MERS-CoV infection (http://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/case-def.html) in U.S. healthcare settings are based upon available information (as of June 10, 2013) and the following considerations:
- Suspected high rate of morbidity and mortality among infected patients
- Evidence of limited human-to-human transmission
- Poorly characterized clinical signs and symptoms
- Unknown modes of transmission of MERS-CoV
- Lack of a vaccine and chemoprophylaxis
- Absence of confirmed or probable MERS-CoV cases in the United States
Selected Components of Standard, Contact, and Airborne Precautions Recommended for Prevention of MERS-CoV Transmission in Hospitals (for full details of these precautions, see http://www.cdc.gov/hicpac/2007IP/2007isolationPrecautions.html)
These infection control standards are notably more stringent than those proposed by the World Health Organization last month.
WHO recommended `medical masks’ (defined as disposable surgical or procedure mask) - as opposed to the more protective N95 respirators - for healthcare workers (HCWs) in close proximity to suspected or confirmed nCoV cases.
WHO: Interim Infection Control Guidance On nCoV (MERS)
in terms of practicality, many resource-limited nations would find it difficult to come up with enough surgical masks, much less N95s, to deal with an outbreak of any size.
And AIIR (Airborne Infection Isolation Rooms) are a luxury that few hospitals can supply.
Making it futile to recommend a level of infection control that - for much of the world’s medical facilities - would be impossible to achieve.
