NHS England distributes Ebola advice for pharmacies
NHS England has published posters to educate pharmacy staff and patients about Ebola
NHS England has distributed posters to educate community pharmacy staff and patients about Ebola.
The posters, produced in conjunction with Public Health England (PHE), include information about the "very low" risk of contracting Ebola in the UK and what to do when faced with patients who may have the virus.
Pharmacy staff are advised to identify whether a patient has returned from Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone, or has cared for an individual with Ebola in the past 21 days. If this patient is also feeling unwell, pharmacy staff should direct them to an empty room - without making physical contact - and call NHS 111 for advice, NHS England said on the poster, which was published online last Saturday (October 18).
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People with early signs of the disease posed a low risk to pharmacy staff, but NHS England said they could be infectious if they were suffering from diarrhoea, vomiting or bleeding. The posters had been released for distribution and pharmacists should contact their clinical commissioning group for details of when they can expect to receive them, NHS England told C+D on Monday (October 20). The Ebola virus is transmitted through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person and has an incubation period of bewteen two and 21 days. Initial symptoms include muscle pain, headaches, a sore throat and fever. The World Health Organisation had reported more than 4,000 deaths as part of the current outbreak, although there had only been one reported case in the UK, the NHS said. Earlier this month, PHE used actors with simulated symptoms to test the UK's contingency plans for an Ebola outbreak. The 8-hour national exercise involved government ministers, ambulance services and hospitals testing their response to an infected individual appearing in a shopping centre and an NHS walk-in centre. For more information on the disease, visit www.nhs.uk/ebola .
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