A House bill aims to protect responders from infectious diseases
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Dispatches
Emergency workers face risks every day, but perhaps none is as frightening as contracting an infectious disease from someone they’ve helped.
In response to that possibility and in light of the AIDS epidemic, Congressman Dennis E. Eckart, a Democrat from Ohio, has introduced legislation that would educate and notify emergency workers about infectious diseases. It would also establish preventive programs.
Under H.R. 3418, ambulance workers, firefighters, and police would be notified when a victim they’ve assisted or taken to a hospital has tested positive for an infectious disease such as hepatitis or acquired immune deficiency syndrome. However, it wouldn’t require that the hospital administer the tests in the first place, nor would it force the hospital to identify the victim.
In a letter to his colleagues, Eckart noted that emergency workers usually have limited knowledge of accident victims’ medical backgrounds.
“If an accident victim does have an infectious disease, there is no system in place to ensure that the firefighter, paramedic, or police officer who may have been infected is informed,” the congressman wrote. “Without this information, rescue workers cannot take adequate steps to protect themselves, their families, or members of the public from infection.”
Eckart’s bill would provide $10 million for AIDS testing and counseling for emergency workers who might have contracted the disease on the job. Although an infected emergency worker’s identity would be kept confidential, positive test results still could be made known to health care professionals and blood banks.
The bill would set aside another $10 million for screening and vaccination programs for other infectious diseases, such as hepatitis.
The bill would also direct the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to develop a training program specifically for emergency workers, teaching them what to do in situations where standard precautions may not be enough to protect against blood and body fluid contact.
Eckart introduced the bill in October and has gained 32 cosponsors.
In a recent study by Johns Hopkins University Hospital and the National Institutes of Health, 16 percent of serious trauma victims between ages 25 and 34 tested positive for antibodies to the AIDS virus, yet none had a known history of AIDS infection.
