Drills and dry runs are important to ensure health-care workers are able to respond without hesitation in the event of a case of Ebola, says Health Minister Rona Ambrose. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
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Canada’s new Ebola guidelines will be discussed by nursing leaders today.
The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions is holding the news conference in Ottawa on the Public Health Agency of Canada’s draft Ebola guidelines.
Earlier on Monday, Dr. Gregory Taylor, chief public health officer, said the guidelines are continually reviewed and updated, based on lessons from the outbreak in West Africa and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The guidelines are highly technical, Taylor said, and offer guidance to provinces and territories on what to consider when training is provided to nurses and other front-line responders.
In Halifax yesterday and today, test drills proved successful, federal health officials said.
“If at any point, Canada was to confirm a first case of Ebola, one of five available rapid response teams would be deployed to provide surge capacity, additional resources and expertise to prevent any further spread of the disease,” Health Minister Rona Ambrose said.
So far, a team from the federal Public Health Agency briefed health-care providers in Ottawa and Halifax on the techniques to prevent spread of the disease should it hit in this country.
Taylor said that in Halifax, the team walked through the response in the event of a case in Nova Scotia. Other provinces have also asked for similar test drills, which are being planned.
“Drills, dry runs and practising are important to ensuring that our teams are able to respond without hesitation in the event of a case of Ebola,” Ambrose said.
The decision to hold the drill in Halifax was communicated at the last minute to more closely resemble a real situation, Taylor said. Two of four Transport Canada planes were mobilized, one from Winnipeg and one from Ottawa.
Taylor also said the first of three shipments of a total of 800 vials of Canada’s experimental Ebola vaccine left this morning from Winnipeg for Geneva, where the World Health Organization is based.
In Canada, there have been no confirmed cases of Ebola. An outbreak of the viral disease is centred in West Africa. Nigeria and Senegal have now been declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization.
“They were able to contain this very quickly with just basic public health measures, which gives, I think, all of us hope that this can happen,” Taylor said.
