Syra Madad
NYC Health + Hospitals, USA
Title: Emergency management preparedness and response to Zika virus build upon best practices and lessons learned from Ebola
Biography
Biography: Syra Madad
Abstract
The rapid dissemination of Zika virus across the World Health Organization’s Region of the Americas has direct impacts on the U.S. healthcare delivery system with hospitals around the nation ramping up prevention and response efforts, including staying abreast of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Zika guidelines, learning about the clinical signs of Zika, evaluating pregnant women for potential Zika virus exposure and discussing prevention with patients. In New York City (NYC), the most populous city in the United States and consisting of five boroughs, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island has reported >463 travel-associated cases of Zika virus disease including 49 cases in pregnant women and three cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome. This suggests that many healthcare systems across the city and throughout the state must be prepared to care for patients with possible Zika virus disease. To prepare for and manage this unprecedented public health threat, NYC Health + Hospitals built its Zika Preparedness and Response Action Plan with systems established during the 2014 Ebola virus disease outbreak and tailored it for the early recognition and management of persons with Zika virus disease. To ensure that NYC Health + Hospitals is prepared to manage Zika virus disease cases and mitigate further disease transmission, the system is closely coordinating internally with its integrated system of hospitals and externally with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) and the New York State Department of Health (DOH). This presentation will focus on best practices, lessons learned from the Ebola response at NYC Health + Hospitals and how the processes and procedures in place for Ebola were augmented and refined to build the response for Zika.