NCJ Number
115223
Date Published
1989
Length
37 pages
Annotation
A 6-month study and a 3-day forum were conducted to evaluate current legal, medical, and safety issues surrounding communicable diseases, including AIDS, and their impact on emergency rescue workers.
Abstract
Focus was on the universal concerns of fire personnel, hospital workers, police, and emergency medical technicians. On the basis of these efforts, it is recommended that appropriate curricula and professional training on communicable disease control be implemented and that standards and protocols addressing communicable disease be developed. Further, an information resource center for fire service and other emergency rescue workers should be developed, and a national uniform notification system to provide need-to-know information to healthcare workers on cases involving communicable diseases should be established. Healthcare workers should be provided with all currently available preventive measures. All emergency service agencies should be notified that there is no legal justification to refuse care according to current medical practice to AIDS victims and others with communicable disease. Finally, resources should be allocated for the dissemination of information on issues in this area, and media efforts should be undertaken to increase public awareness of the communicable disease control problem facing the emergency medical service field. Supplemental information, including protocols and list of legal/ethical and safety issues, are appended.