New High Consequence Infectious Disease Guidance for Care Providers

The UK Health Security Agency has published new guidance aimed at care providers detailing what actions should be taken should an individual under care become suspected of carrying a high consequence infectious disease (HCID).

HCIDs are diseases which are identified as having a high case-fatality rate, often with no effective treatment, are difficult to detect and have the ability to rapidly spread within a community. HCIDs include:

• Argentine haemorrhagic fever (Junin virus)
• Bolivian haemorrhagic fever (Machupo virus)
• Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF)
• Ebola virus disease (EBOD)
• Lassa fever
• Lujo virus disease
• Marburg virus disease (MVD)
• Severe fever with thrombocytopaenia syndrome (SFTS)
• Andes virus infection (hantavirus)
• Avian influenza A(H7H9) and A(H5N1)
• Avian influenza A(H5N6) and A(H7N7)
• Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
• Nipah virus infection
• Pneumonic plague (Yersinia pestis)
• Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

It should be noted that it is unlikely that a person within a care environment would become infected, as none of the current HCIDs are endemic to the UK, with the majority of known infections acquired overseas.

Should a healthcare provider suspect an individual under their care is infected with an HCID, the guidance states the following steps should be taken:

• Call an ambulance to transfer the patient to a hospital, describing on the call why they suspect the patient is infected.
• Contact the local health protection team.
• Follow standard infection control precautions.
• Support the patient suspected of being infected to stay in their own room. If possible, the patient should only be cared for by staff who were already providing care to avoid further exposure to others. Where individuals have to enter the room, they should wear full PPE.
• The basic care needs of the patient should continue to be met, including safeguarding from risk, access to toilet facilities, food, medication, etc.
• A record should be kept of who has been in contact or in the same room as the patient since they developed symptoms. Include the time, duration of contact, type of contact and PPE used.
• Be aware of symptoms developing in others.
• Notify the Care Quality Commission if necessary.
• Once the patient has been taken to hospital, close the room they were in and leave it isolated until information regarding environmental decontamination is provided.
• Await potential public health measures from the local health protection team.

If you have any questions or would like support with managing issues at your workplace, please speak to your usual contact or get in touch using the form below.