NEWSDAY OCTOBER 18, 2 K 14 Declare Ebola ‘dangerous’ By MIRANDA LA ROSE Saturday, October 18 2014 GOVERNMENT has requested President Anthony Carmona to declare the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) a dangerous infection under the Public Health Ordinance so as to be empowered to implement a number of proposed measures to prevent the contagion from catching on locally We have done everything. It is now for the Attorney General to push it forward and for the President to make a proclamation,” Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan told Newsday yesterday. Meanwhile, Khan confirmed that in keeping with a decision of the Cabinet committee dealing with the setting up of an Ebola Prevention and Response Team (EPRT) he has issued a directive to chairmen of Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) not to disseminate information pertaining to EVD preparedness. Only himself and Chief Medical Officer Dr Colin Furlonge or designated persons will speak on health issues of EVD “for the time being,” he said. On Thursday Khan issued a directive to the RHAs informing them that only himself and the CMO will communicate with the media on the EVD to ensure that information reaching the public were accurate. On the security aspects of the EVD, Khan said that Commander Garvin Heera and Brigadier General Anthony Phillip Spencer will address the media and the public. In response to reports from medical personnel speaking with Newsday that Caura Hospital, which has been designated a quarantine, isolation and containment area for the EVD, was not ready and that it would not be ready within the next six weeks or more, Khan said, “if an Ebola case comes we are ready.” Newsday was told that as of yesterday, the infrastructure and some equipment were in place at Caura Hospital, but staff were not equipped to handle and manage a suspected case because they were not yet trained, or drilled, and proper protection equipment (PPE) were not available. “What people want to see,” Khan said, “is an internationally brand isolation area. We are going to purchase an isolation cabin and an isolation ward, but in the meantime, we have to make do with what we have.” At the Caura Hospital, he said, “We are putting things together to have a proper Isolation Unit, so that if an Ebola case comes we are ready.” The Isolation Unit in which no one can enter and leave as they wish, he said, “has to be manned by senior staff, and the disposal of waste has to be manned properly. Anybody can do that, anyway.” On the reports that staff were not prepared to handle and manage suspected cases, Khan said, “People are already trained in isolation techniques.” Isolation techniques are not anything new, he said. “It is something they do all the time. It is just that we have to make sure that they are more careful.” The reasons why the nurses in the US who treated Liberian Eric Duncan, the first case diagnosed in Dallas, Texas, got infected, he said, was because the protocols were not strictly adhered to. Isolation techniques for the prevention of the transmission of tuberculosis, Khan said was not an easy method. “There is no difference in isolation techniques. It is just the level of stringency is what we have to get on board,” he said. Senior staff was in the process of getting the drills started, he said.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 13:15:12 +0000
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