Reference to the Ebola virus causes concern among all individuals, whether from the public or within the medical community. Realization that patients with Ebola virus disease (EVD) have now been recognized in the United States in response to the major outbreak occurring in West Africa has heightened this fear. Recently, the World Health Organization declared the Ebola epidemic to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern to provide containment of this major international health threat. In response to this threat to public health, the United States has stepped up efforts to provide care for infected patients, which include bringing individuals with EVD into the United States for treatment. These activities, along with the increased possibility of having more individuals recognized with EVD in the United States, have caused hospitals to evaluate how to contain and care for patients suspecting of having EVD. As a part of this response, laboratorians have been asked to be prepared to test specimens from persons under investigation (PUIs) for EVD or patients known to have EVD.
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Iwen et al. (2014) studied this question.