Nursing staff ‘at risk’ amid Ebola outbreak, warns RCN          

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is calling for a coordinated international response to the Ebola outbreak amid concerns that nursing staff are ‘at risk’.

It has warned that without help to support nurses in the affected areas, including steps to prevent shortages of essential supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE), the situation ‘could worsen further’.

It comes as nurses and other healthcare professionals in the UK have been urged to consider the disease in any acutely unwell patient with a history of fever who has left Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or Uganda in the previous 21 days.

The warning from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHA) came amid an outbreak of the disease in DRC and Uganda, in which a spread of the Bundibugyo strain has seen more than 1,000 suspected cases and 246 deaths reported.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) designated the current outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 17 May.

In the UK, Ebola disease is considered a high consequence infectious disease (HCID), but the UKHSA has assessed the risk to the public as low.

Following news of the outbreak, the RCN stressed the situation was ‘putting fragile health services and nursing staff at risk’.

The college is now joining the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in calling for nurses and frontline health workers in DRC, Uganda and surrounding nations to have ‘immediate access to high-quality’ PPE, screening equipment and the resources required to protect themselves, their patients and their communities.

The ICN said recently that nurses are reporting feeling ‘scared for their safety because they do not have the equipment to protect themselves’.

RCN’s international academy associate director Marcus Wootton said: ‘We are deeply concerned by the worsening Ebola situation and by the pressure now being placed on nursing staff and health care teams in what are already difficult circumstances.

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‘The response to the Ebola outbreak requires nursing staff to have access to the right protective equipment that is matched by laboratory support, contact tracing, safe working conditions and access to timely clinical guidance.

‘There have been Ebola outbreaks before and the nursing profession knows what needs to be done this time to provide high-quality care to patients.

‘We now urge the global community to move quickly to support nurses and health systems.

‘This outbreak shows why sustained investment in global health matters. When surveillance, infection prevention, staffing and basic supplies are weak, outbreaks become harder to contain, and nurses and others carry the risk. Cutting support for health systems is a false economy and very damaging to global health

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‘The RCN warned last year that cuts to aid would have direct consequences and tragically we are seeing the negative impact of those decisions unfolding in many areas of the world including in this very concerning outbreak.’

As of yet there is no approved vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain but three are currently in development.