Hospitals on Long Island are working to adhere to the new CDC guidelines on how to treat potential Ebola patients.
The revised federal guidelines state that workers must be completely covered with no skin showing when treating such patients. Hospital workers must also be monitored while donning and removing their protective garb.
The new guidelines were released after two nurses at a Dallas hospital were infected with Ebola after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who became the first person in the United States to die of the virus.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has designated Nassau University Medical Center and Stony Book University Hospital as the two Ebola treatment centers on Long Island. NUMC says it will be ready with protective gear and isolation rooms to prevent any re-transmission of the disease.
Nassau University Medical Center today displayed its new protective suit, which is designed to completely protect health care workers' skin from potential exposure and is also equipped with its own respirator.
Officials at NUMC say three patients who had traveled to West Africa were recently admitted to the hospital with Ebola-like symptoms. However, two of those patients were determined to have malaria, and the third had the flu.