When the U.S. State Department told authorities at Emory University Hospital to prepare for the arrival of the first of two U.S. Ebola patients in August of 2014, the facility had 72 hours to ready isolation unit, according to an article on the Marquette Magazine.
Emory’s isolation unit was built 10 years ago in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and includes two ICU-style patient rooms with contained bathrooms, locker rooms where medical staff can dress in the required protective clothing and take emergency decontamination showers, and dedicated laboratory space.
The unit is self-contained so no virus particles are disseminated beyond its confines.
After the 2014 call, Emory staff tested and re-tested all of the systems built into the biocontainment unit. It became apparent that the unit was not large enough to accommodate the laboratory needs of two patients. Within 72 hours they commandeered an office next door to the unit and retrofitted it with a biosafety cabinet and functioning point-of-care lab.
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