With a recent American healthcare report stating that U.S. hospitals are ill-prepared to deal with a large-scale Ebola outbreak, a Veterans Affairs hospital is now reportedly conducting an "emergency installation" of air filters for Ebola patients in a facility in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
However the filters, which will cost about $18,000, have raised questions about what other measures are being planned to be implemented in the facility, Breitbart reported.
"This emergency service is for the creation of a ward to attend suspected patients with the Ebola virus who have to be quarantined," explains a document justifying the use of a sole-source contract for the filters.
Although protocol for U.S. soldiers to protect themselves while engaging in the fight against Ebola in Liberia has been murky and not really explained properly by officials, there have not been any reports of soldiers being infected with the deadly disease yet.
"So far, we're crossing our fingers, but we've had no issues at all," Manuel Delrio, an employee at the hospital, said by phone on Sunday, confirming that no Ebola patients had been admitted in the San Juan VA facility.
"This situation is considered an emergency and prompt attention is a required delaying repair will create a situation where an outbreak of Ebola may happen to patient, guest or employees," according to the sole-source document.
Meanwhile, the threat of a potential Ebola outbreak has been well-prepared in advance at several VA hospitals in the U.S. mainland, according to multiple media reports.
"The resources we have available to us, the personnel we have available to us, are second to none," Dr. Gary Badzinski, the Fayetteville, North Carolina VA's chief of medicine told the Fayetteville Observer. "We are out in front of this."
In addition, C.W. Bill Young VA Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, has also prepared for any possible Ebola patients, officials confirmed to Tampa Tribune.
"We are fine-tuning operational plans to adjust for the special requirements of this specific virus," Mary Kay Hollingsworth, spokeswoman for the VA Sunshine Healthcare Network, told the Tribune.
The VA Sunshine Healthcare Network oversees VA medical facilities in Florida, South Georgia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to Breitbart.
The Ebola outbreak started in Guinea's remote southeast in February, and has since spread across the region. Since it was first recorded in 1976 in what is now Democratic Republic of Congo, more than 2,500 people have died in the outbreak from more than 4,200 infections in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.
Symptoms of the highly infectious disease are diarrhea, vomiting and internal and external bleeding.
