Local Health Districts (LHD) must ensure that each hospital has in place a contingency plan for the assessment and management of patients with an increased possibility for a High Consequence Infectious Disease (HCID), including Ebola virus disease (EVD) who present to their facility.
Detailed guidance is provided in the NSW Health Early Response to High Consequence Infectious Diseases and the Addendum to the Policy Directive: Response to suspected or confirmed viral haemorrhagic fever.
Suspected and confirmed cases of EVD in NSW will be cared for in collaboration with the NSW Specialist Service for High Consequence Infectious Diseases (HCID) based at Westmead Hospital. Patients presenting to other hospitals and classified as being at increased risk of EVD should be discussed with the Specialist Service for HCID as soon as possible. The specialist service will initiate a case teleconference to deal with urgent issues relating to the safe immediate care, transport and testing of the patient.
Hospitals must be prepared to detect and isolate patients if they suspect EVD. EVD should be suspected if the patient:
In some circumstances, the clinical severity of the illness may make it inappropriate to immediately transfer a patient with suspected EVD to Westmead. In this rare scenario, the Specialist Service will support affected hospitals to manage the patient until transfer is possible or until EVD is excluded.
Timely access to laboratory testing for EVD as well as other diagnostic tests forming part of the differential diagnosis will be discussed in the urgent conference initiated by the NSW Specialist Service for HCID.
Where EVD is suspected, samples should not be taken or transported to the laboratory prior to discussion with the NSW Specialist Service for HCID. Where samples have already been taken and processed, the initial teleconference should discuss steps to be taken to control any potential exposures in staff and equipment.
Once appropriate specimens reach Westmead, initial PCR results for EVD are usually available within hours.
Refer to the Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC) Infection Prevention and Control for a range of EVD infection control training videos, posters and other resources related to PPE and clinical waste disposal.
