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Health officials to purchase biosafety suits; Alajuela hospital selected for suspected Ebola cases

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An example of a BSL-4 positive pressure suit. (Government / Public Domain photo)

An example of a BSL-4 positive pressure suit. (Government / Public Domain photo)

October 14th, 2014 (InsideCostaRica.com) Costa Rica’s public health system (CCSS) is planning to purchase biosafety suits to distribute amongst its staff, and has selected the Hospital San Rafael de Alajuela to receive any adults suspected of having Ebola.

 

Children suspected of having the virus would be treated at the National Children’s Hospital.

 

Authorities said that the hospital in Alajuela was selected due to its proximity to the Juan Santamaria International Airport.

 

Authorities said that the exact number and type of biosafety suits that will be acquired would be determined in the coming days, though the use of “positive pressure” suits is what is generally advised by experts when dealing with Ebola.

 

These types of suits, often informally known as “space suits” are a type of airtight hazmat suits that are positively pressured from the inside to prevent contamination to the wearer even if the suit becomes damaged.

 

All strains of Ebola are Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) pathogens, Level 4 being the highest virulence designation for infectious agents.

Health authorities are also expecting to conduct a number of drills in the coming days, in which first responders, health authorities, and law enforcement will simulate cases of Ebola infection.

 

Officials said that the country would not restrict the entry of travelers originating from Africa in response to the Ebola theat.

 

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  • disqus_r8w0IwvvLw

    WE smell trouble a comin to Costa Rica. Who decided to use CR for this
    and how many “people originating from Africa” have actually ever come to CR and why NOW? The reason this is total insanity is: if you wanted to keep the citizens of CR safe you would simply stop the entrance of anyone coming from or passing through Africa at this time until things were stable and the outbreaks ended.

    • Larry Worsham

      I normally don’t comment on posts that use anonymous names but will here.

      It isn’t the people coming from Africa, it’s the people they might have come in contact with once they started showing symptoms. If they want to guarantee it doesn’t come into the country they’d have to close all borders, cancel all international flights and then make sure no one slips through the cracks by coming into the country illegally.

      What they are doing is to insure that should someone contact the disease in CR, or carry it here before symptoms are indicated, that adequate facilities are available to control the spread of it. How can you be critical of this?

  • mthorman

    PPE (hazmat suits) are nice, but useless without intensive training. Furthermore, the staff usually most in danger of being infected by a patient are not doctors, but nurses, phlebs, technicians, etc. These people need to be trained intensively (a hour of a video tape won’t do), need to work in pairs, need to know how to monitor themselves and what they can and cannot do after having cared for an Ebola patient. The level of ignorance here about this very deadly virus is appalling. Respirators or oxygen tanks and masks are necessary for nurses or doctors doing IV positioning, housekeepers cleaning isolation rooms of Ebola patients, etc. The disease is not airborne in the normal sense, but an aerosol spray of various body fluids is produced every time a person vomits or voids and every time a catheter is set or removed and every time an intubation is done. No one on the care team from doctor to janitor can be left out of the training and equipping process. And what is Costa Rica planning for ambulance or air evacuation? I fear the country is planning too little and will not be prepared when the first cases appear here. Original symptoms look very much like Dengue or Chikunguya. Or even just the flu. Patients should be isolated in clear bubbles with safety gloves built in. Costa Rica can’t afford these units. The Caja isn’t being prepared. Nurses and doctors here in the Southern Zone haven’t a clue.

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