After 2 healthcare workers in Texas contracted the Ebola virus, hospitals nationwide are revamping safety protocol to cut down on the potential spread of the often-deadly disease. In this special edition of KNAU's series, Brain Food, producer Bonnie Stevens reports on how those upgraded safety measures are being implemented in Coconino County.
Just the word "Ebola" is enough to trigger fear in the general public. "That's understandable. It's a scary disease to contract," says Marie Peoples, Chief Health Officer with the Coconino County Public Health Services services. For the last couple of weeks, ever since the CDC released stricter guidelines for suspected Ebola cases, Peoples has been working with health care professionals, emergency first responders and even school officials to establish best safety practices. She says, "We don't necessarily want people just presenting in the Emergency Room if they are a suspect case because that then exposes other people. So, we're working on protocol to have people basically stay in place."
Staying in place could mean staying at home, being confined to the ambulance that brought you to the hospital, or waiting in your car in the parking lot until doctors can better assess the situation. At Flagstaff Medical Center, officials have established a special route through the hospital to admit patients with suspicious symptoms without exposing others. Joel Terriquez is an infectious disease specialist at FMC. He says, "We already have isolation rooms in the hospital, but we need to mention that we do not have a biocontainment room, which is the most appropriate thing to use in these situations. There are only 2 or 3 hospitals in the United States that have these biocontainment rooms."
This week, FMC began increased training for all hospital staff. Employees will now wear double-layers of gloves and full-body protective gear when working with patients suspected of having Ebola. Terriquez says that gear will have to be bleached down before it's removed. He says FMC is also trying to create what he calls a "strike team". "That will be a more prepared group that will be taking care of any potential cases while they're in the hospital."
Emergency first responders, like paramedics and firefighters are also increasing safety precautions. Kevin Wilson is fire captain at one of Flagstaff's local stations. "On all our front line engines," he says, "we make sure we have plenty of gowns, plenty of eye protection and plenty of N95 masks just so that we are prepared to deal with whatever illness we might encounter."
Wilson says firefighters remove all their gear - including their boots - outside the station where they're cleaned or disposed of. One of the key questions they ask while on calls is about a patient's travel history: have they been out of the country? If so, where? "If somebody says, 'Yeah, we just got back from West Africa and I have these symptoms', we're going to treat it a lot differently than someone who says, 'I've never left Flagstaff, and my family all has a bad cold'", Wilson says.
Even with increased training, protective gear and education, health care officials and emergency first responders say there is one simple practice that's the best defense against Ebola: washing your hands.
