Though these recommendations focus on the hospital setting, the recommendations for personal protective equipment (PPE), source control (i.e., placing a facemask on potentially infected patients when outside of an airborne infection isolation room), and environmental infection control measures are applicable to any healthcare setting.
In this guidance healthcare personnel (HCP) refers all persons, paid and unpaid, working in healthcare settings who have the potential for exposure to patients and/or to infectious materials, including body substances, contaminated medical supplies and equipment, contaminated environmental surfaces, or contaminated air. HCP include, but are not limited to, physicians, nurses, nursing assistants, therapists, technicians, emergency medical service personnel, dental personnel, pharmacists, laboratory personnel, autopsy personnel, students and trainees, contractual personnel, home healthcare personnel, and persons not directly involved in patient care (e.g., clerical, dietary, house-keeping, laundry, security, maintenance, billing, chaplains, and volunteers) but potentially exposed to infectious agents that can be transmitted to and from HCP and patients. This guidance is not intended to apply to persons outside of healthcare settings.
As information becomes available, these recommendations will be re-evaluated and updated as needed. These recommendations are based upon available information (as of May 14, 2014) and the following considerations:
- Suspected high rate of morbidity and mortality among infected patients
- Evidence of limited human-to-human transmission
- Poorly characterized clinical signs and symptoms
- Unknown modes of transmission of MERS-CoV
- Lack of a vaccine and chemoprophylaxis
- http://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/infection-prevention-control.html
