Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston is building a special isolation unit dedicated to treating children with Ebola, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.
Hospital spokeswoman Patty Gregory confirmed the construction of the unit Wednesday, though she stressed that the children’s hospital does not have any patient with the Ebola virus.
Children’s Healthcare has three hospitals — Egleston, Hughes Spalding and Scottish Rite — and more than 20 neighborhood locations in metro Atlanta. Egleston is located at 1405 Clifton Road in northeast Atlanta, across the street from Emory University Hospital.
“We are creating an isolated Special Care Unit where we would provide care to children with possible or confirmed Ebola virus infections,” said the section of the Children’s Healthcare website titled “Ebola: Children’s is Prepared.”
The site added, “This unit will provide care to a child who needs special isolation and is run by specially trained staff.”
The site does not specify which Children’s hospital will house the special unit, but Gregory confirmed Wednesday that it was Egleston.
The establishment of a children’s isolation unit in Atlanta comes as hospitals, doctors’ offices and public health facilities across the country train and equip their staffs to handle a patient with the disease. Georgia may be at a higher risk for such an occurrence, health experts say. They note that Emory University Hospital is among four designated biocontainment units for Ebola patients in the nation, and that Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is among five airports designated to accept travelers from the Ebola “hot zone” countries in West Africa.
The AJC submitted several questions to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta asking for the timetable for building the new children’s unit, as well as the costs, level of equipment and number of beds.
CHOA responded with a written statement that answered virtually none of those questions.
The statement said, “We have comprehensive public health emergency preparedness plans and are able to safely identify and care for a child with a serious communicable disease, including Ebola.”
Hospital officials noted that CHOA is not on the state Department of Public Health’s list of hospitals designated to treat Ebola. The state’s Ebola Response Team has said training is underway at seven treatment hospitals across the state that would care for patients believed to be infected with the deadly virus. Emory, which has already treated four infected patients, is among the facilities.
Experts say they don’t believe Egleston’s unit will serve many child Ebola patients, but that having such a dedicated unit is beneficial.
“It would have a pediatric staff and equipment appropriately sized for children,” said Dr. Stephen Morse, a Columbia University professor of epidemiology.
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