First Ebola Patient to Arrive in Atlanta Saturday.

[magical thyme]

38. actually the "accidental exposures" I was thinking of are things like equipment failures or

normal human error or accidental needlesticks.

Human error can consist of things like bumping a rack of chemistry samples and knocking it over (the having a rack topple without even being bumped). The racks on my chemistry analyzer topple easily. I brace them when I am filling them, but I have seen them topple without even being bumped.

Needlesticks are not necessarily due to "mistakes" by professionals. I very nearly had a needlestick a few weeks ago when I was drawing an adult male who decided he was going to "help" me by holding his bandage. The problem is that he doesn't know my job and I hadn't yet asked him to hold it. I was pulling the needle out of his arm when he unexpectedly reached over and knocked my arm out of his way. That was slightly dangerous to him, as I had barely got the needle out when he hit me -- a fraction of a second earlier and he would have been ripping the needle out instead of letting me slide it straight back. He could have ended up with bad bruising or even a tear in his skin. It was very dangerous for me, as the exposed needle was now out of my control as my arm and hand were flung to the side. Fortunately, what control I still had I used to swing my hand away from both of us.

Patients that are thrashing about, small children and animals are dangerous to draw or inject.

In order to draw, you have to brace the vein with your thumb and forefinger. All it takes is for the patient to jerk their arm or leg with enough force and your forefinger, which is just a couple inches above the entry point for the needle, is at high risk.

As far as "public disclosure" in order to maintain their certification, hospitals are inspected by various governmental and non-governmental organizations for safety. There is safety training, which is ongoing. And their are policies and procedures in place to prevent transmission. The simple fact is that in an environment with a concentration of sick people and public coming and going.

And I have no idea what this means: "their routine tests of sanitary conditions." I'm not aware of "routine tests of sanitary conditions."