Inside the Nebraska quarantine facility responding to hantavirus
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What are the current disease outbreaks highlighted in this episode?
Hey, it's Flora, and you are listening to Science Friday. Two disease outbreaks are dominating the news. Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Hantavirus, which started spreading on a cruise ship. In the U.S., there's a one-of-a-kind medical facility that exists just for emergencies like these. It's called the National Quarantine Unit, and it's in Omaha, Nebraska. Americans exposed to dangerous diseases are evacuated there. Right now, 18 Americans from the cruise ship where Hantavirus broke out are in quarantine at that facility in Omaha. And today, we're going behind the scenes with one of the nurses who's worked there for the last 17 years to hear how the facility works, the latest with these travelers exposed to Hantavirus, and how this facility is preparing for the possibility of Ebola-exposed patients.
How does the National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska operate?
Angie Vasha is the Director of Emergency Preparedness and Special Pathogens Programs at Nebraska Medicine. Angie, welcome to Science Friday. Thank you for having me. Happy to be here. How many hantavirus-exposed patients do you have right now, and how are they doing?
Yeah, so right now we have 18 individuals who have been with us since May 11th, and all of our individuals remain well. So with quarantine, we were providing monitoring and observation for the potential development of symptoms, and then if those symptoms develop, they would be moved over to our biocontainment unit, which is in our hospital. And so thus far, all of our guests remain well. I think, you know, like most folks that would be in a quarantine situation, people get a little bit stir crazy after a few days. And so our focus right now on this phase of response is really maintaining mental and physical stimulation opportunities. And so we're really focusing on making sure we're supporting holistically what they need to sustain
Their time here with us, which was, you know, proposed to be 42 days for the full incubation period.
42 days.
Yes.
Wow. That's not a small amount of time.
No, it isn't.
So what is it like there? Should I be picturing a hospital or a hotel or some hybrid?
It's definitely a blend of both. So each individual has their own room. And so it's interesting in that we have our rooms set up. They are all along the outer wall of our floor so that every room has natural sunlight, access to the windows so you can see out of the building. Each of the rooms has exercise equipment, so either a treadmill or a bike, free weights, a yoga mat, a yoga ball, some stair stepper blocks. Each of the rooms are at least 300 square feet, and they have a full-size bed, en suite bathroom. So Kind of what you would expect from a hotel. But then we layered in engineering controls so all of the rooms have negative pressure so that no airborne particles can escape out into the hallway.
The hallway is also negative pressure to the general space. Okay. All of the floors are sealed seam flooring and so easily wipeable. So it's kind of a really interesting blend between a hotel room and a hospital room. Is there room service? Yeah, there is. So because they're not allowed to leave the room, our staff provides everything, including toiletries. meal delivery, snack delivery, personal items. We also do all of their laundry. So we do that each evening. And then I think one of the unique things about our facility is that we also have an autoclave on site. So for some of our pathogens that produce category A hazardous substance waste, if people become sick, you need to be able to inactivate that waste prior to shipping it out.
And so we have the ability to escalate to those full isolation procedures on this floor should somebody become ill prior to being able to move them over to the hospital side.
What does that mean, deactivate the waste?
Yeah. So when you have like Ebola virus disease is actually a great example or any of the viral hemorrhagic fevers because the virus can persist on surfaces for an extended period of time. And it takes such a low amount of virus to infect someone. So infectious dose is, you know, a big consideration.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What are the current disease outbreaks highlighted in this episode?
0:03–0:51
2
How does the National Quarantine Unit in Nebraska operate?
0:51–4:44
3
What is the current status of patients exposed to hantavirus?
4:44–7:49
4
How does the quarantine facility support the mental health of its guests?
7:49–10:01
5
What unique features does the quarantine facility offer for patient care?
10:01–12:02
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Science Friday
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