Currently, the only OSHA disease-specific requirements to protect healthcare workers focus on blood-borne pathogens. Those standards were created in the 1980s in response to fears of HIV and hepatitis. The agency also has general standards on protective equipment and hazard communication.
In June, OSHA announced plans to convene a review panel to provide insight into possible infection-control regulation, which would affect hospitals, ambulatory-care centers, long-term and home health facilities, laboratories and other relevant workplaces. However, the agency began that initiative around 2010 amid fears of the novel H1N1 flu and has been following an admittedly slow regulatory process.
In a letter sent to OSHA (PDF) Wednesday, the American Industrial Hygiene Association called on the agency to speed it up. "Diseases like Ebola create public concern for the health and safety of healthcare workers, and it is only a matter of time before this concern spreads to other workers," said the group's executive director, Peter O'Neil. “The rule is an absolute necessity to assist in controlling this virus,” he said.
When asked earlier this month whether the Ebola outbreak would speed up the process for a potential infectious-disease rule, OSHA official Jordan Barab acknowledged the need for OSHA involvement. But he said Ebola fears are not likely to trump the regulatory process.
“There are always diseases of concern,” said Barab, the department's deputy assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. “We certainly have heard all the horror stories before.” The agency has a responsibility, he said, but “in order to fulfill that role we need to have up-to-date standards and make sure they are enforceable.”
Health workers are often the first victims of these types of outbreaks, according to the World Health Organization. As of October 1, the WHO reported a total of 382 healthcare workers in the African nations of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone were known to have developed the condition. At least two nurses from the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas have contracted the virus since the first U.S. case was reported.
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