NASHVILLE, TN – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recognized the Firestone Tire company’s “meticulous attention to detail and care for patients” in fighting Ebola and suggests others could emulate aspects of the tire company’s battle plan.

In its weekly information update the CDC calls Firestone’s staff “compassionate and careful.”

“There are several unique elements of the Firestone response that enhance existing Ebola control guidelines,” the CDC report states.

Firestone Liberia operates a 185-square-mile rubber plantation housing about 80,000 people, who also have access to Firestone’s health-care facilities. 

The first Ebola patient on the Firestone property was the wife of a Firestone employee, and she contracted the virus after visiting a sick family member off the plantation Firestone officials leapt to action. For an account of that response, click here. 

Then, between Aug. 1 and Sept. 23, there were 71 more Ebola cases appeared on the property, but proportionately, that is still far fewer than in surrounding communities. 

According to a report on the Infection Control Today  website, CD Director Tom Trieden says he visited the Firestone facility and came away impressed.

“I went to see the Firestone hospital in Liberia at the end of August. I saw how careful and meticulous the staff is and how compassionately they care for Ebola patients and their families.

“This shows that it’s possible to contain Ebola with meticulous attention to detail and care for patients.”

The CDC issues a weekly report called the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), and this week, it notes that aspects of Firestone’s response to the current Ebola epidemic appear to have minimized spread among the local population and might be successfully implemented elsewhere to limit transmission.

For a fascinating on-the-front-lines look at what the CDC was referring to, click here.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm63e1021a1.htm?s_cid=mm63e1021a1_e