Local health and hospital officials hosted a meeting last week about the Ebola virus, a disease that has had very deadly reaches in West Africa and hit the United States last month when a man from Liberia came into the country with Ebola.<\/p>\n
Marc Meyer, pharmacist and infection preventionist at Southwest Memorial Hospital, led the Oct. 30 meeting. About 30 people attended. He started the meeting off with a little perspective.<\/p>\n
So far, he said, there has been one imported case of Ebola and two additional cases in health-care workers treating that patient.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve had other outbreaks, that have been much worse and get far less media attention, such as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae with a 50-percent mortality rate, which has resulted in about 600 deaths. And the MRSA infections, which has led to 10,800 deaths each year in the U.S. And then there is the old-fashioned influenza, which worldwide sees about 3 to 5 million cases and about 500,000 deaths every year, 50,000, of which are in the U.S.<\/p>\n
Meyer told people to be respectful of Ebola, not to be afraid of it.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, hospital workers and first responders have spent the last few weeks preparing for it and training for worst-case scenarios.<\/p>\n
Meyer said they have been brushing up on CDC guidelines and going over how to don personal protective equipment. Health care workers have also been brushing up on the \u201cAsk, Isolate, Call\u201d system, which has them ask if a patient has traveled to West Africa or been exposed to someone with Ebola when they are being treated.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur receptionist should ask if you have traveled to West Africa,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n
Meyer told the group gathered last week that the hospital in Cortez is ready to deal with it, if the worst were to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very fortunate in that we have six isolation rooms in our hospital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added that the hospital researched its cleaning products and that the alcohol hand rubs kills the disease.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the patients would be transported.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have travel history to West Africa in the last 21 days, you need to call the health department,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n
Another bit of perspective in dealing with the disease. In West Africa, there is 1 doctor for every 50,000 people. In the U.S., that number is 2.5 doctors for every 1,000 people.<\/p>\n
According to recent data, Ebola has seen 13,703 cases in West Africa and 4,922 deaths with a 36 percent death rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not as bad as they are saying in the news, but it is still a very bad disease,\u201d Meyer said.<\/p>\n
Meyer said that to get Ebola is by direct contact, through broken skin or through your eyes, nose or mouth with blood and body fluids like urine, feces, saliva, vomit, sweat and semen of a person who is sick with Ebola. Ebola is not spread through the air.<\/p>\n
Meyer gave an example.<\/p>\n
\u201cEbola is highly infectious, but not highly transmissible,\u201d he said. \u201cFor example, if one of us in this room had the measles and we all weren\u2019t vaccinated, we would all get the measles. If one of us had Ebola, we likely wouldn\u2019t get it unless you came into contact with their body fluids.\u201d<\/p>\n
One firefighter spoke up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not afraid of it, as long as we respect it,\u201d said Charles Balke, assistant fire chief with the Cortez Fire Protection District. \u201cIf it does hit here, we are fully prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps no one in Cortez has watched the news of Ebola spreading in western Africa quit as closely as James Kamara, a doctoral candidate in pharmacy at Southwest Memorial Hospital.
\n Kamara is a native of Liberia, one of the countries hit hardest with the deadly disease, and although he hasn\u2019t lived in Liberia in 25 years and hasn\u2019t visited it in five years, his nephews and sister are still there.
\n Kamara calls often and gives his sister advice.
\n He tells her to stock up on water, to get IV bags and to shut her door to others. He wonders if she can get her hands on protective clothing and tells her if she can\u2019t, to wear regular clothing that covers her up. And if she is around someone with Ebola, to throw those clothes away.
\n \u2018In Africa, we open our doors to people. People can go in and out of your home all day,\u2019 Kamara said.
\n He told her to shut her door and not to hug people, a common greeting for his sister.
\n Kamara said that such an outbreak wouldn\u2019t occur in the U.S.
\n \u2018In Africa, they lack water supply and electricity. The health care system here is safe. We know you have to wash your hands to keep down the spread of disease, but in Africa, we might not have water to wash our hands with,\u2019 Kamara said. \u2018Don\u2019t look at Africa\u2019s hospitals the same as here.\u2019
\n Kamara, 45, is working of his doctorate in pharmacy and has spent the past six weeks at Southwest Memorial Hospital on a residency. He traveled to his New Jersey home on Sunday and will finish up his doctorate.
\n Kamara has been a pharmacist for 15 years. After he finishes his doctorate in pharmacy, he hopes to return to Liberia and give them what they desperately need \u2013 water.
\n \u2018Some people have hobbies. I can still work as a pharmacist and build one well at a time,\u2019 he said.
\n Kamara said that civil war tore apart West Africa in the 1990s.
\n \u2018Before the war, Liberia had hospitals, doctors, electricity. The place was nice,\u2019 he said. \u2018The civil war destroyed the infrastructure.\u2019
\n Kamara said that if the health care system could be rebuilt and water and electricity brought back, the country would not be dealing with this disease at the scale they are now.
\n \u2018Here, Americans should not panic about the disease. Although we know it\u2019s a deadly disease, the sanitary conditions in these hospitals are so much more advanced,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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