Guyana selects quarantine area for possible Ebola victims

Oct 14, 2014 News

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The lower flat of the new inpatient facility of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has been identified

as the Ebola quarantine area.
And according to Chief Executive Officer, Michael Khan, the selected area is the most suitable section of the hospital in light of the fact that any potential Ebola patient will not have to come in contact with other patients.
According to Mr Khan, too, should a case be detected and transported to the quarantine area there will be a heightened presence of security officers, appropriately decked, to manage the entrance to the facility.
And it was at the very facility that the first in a series of Ebola training programmes was conducted yesterday. The training was characterised by an awareness session facilitated by United States-based Dr. Joanna Cole.
Her focus was therefore to raise awareness among various key levels of workers of the hospital, including doctors, nurses and other level of staff on the standard precautions on how to deal with Ebola.
The session, which was mainly conducted through a verbal presentation complemented by visual aid, saw the hospital staffers even being enlightened on the proper way to put on and take off needful protective gear. A segment of the forum was also dedicated to practice in this regard.
And according to Dr Cole, the importance of gears (clothing, mask, gloves, etc.) cannot be understated. “It is incredibly important for you to do it safely because when you go into an environment where someone has an infectious disease that is highly transmissible you get contaminated.
“You touch the surfaces, you touch the patient in providing good patient care and when you do all of that all of your outside surfaces are now contaminated and it is particularly important that you know how to get all of the materials off,” Dr Cole explained to this publication yesterday.
She noted that dealing with Ebola is on par with the operations of surgeons in the theatre who are required to “keep everything sterile.”
“It is similar to that but in a different environment and that is why people need to be specifically trained on how to do it.”
And in the putting on and removal of gear, Dr. Cole said that there is need for support to ensure that the process is being done correctly.
While she has not seen Ebola in action, Dr. Cole has been exposed to other conditions such as haemorrhagic diseases that are life threatening, highly infectious influenza and other conditions that cause severe respiratory infection.

“Thankfully with Ebola it is not air-borne like some viruses are, and that can cause them to be more dangerous in terms of outbreak situations…I have not had to take care of somebody with Ebola because up until this outbreak they have all been in isolated small areas mainly in Africa,” said Dr Cole.
The Ebola Virus has been wreaking unprecedented havoc in sections of West Africa after being detected there earlier this year. Reports suggest that more than 3,000 persons have already died and even more are infected with the virus which is transmitted through human to human contact with body fluids including blood, faeces, vomit, breast milk, urine and semen.
Symptoms of the Ebola Virus could manifest similar to that of a common flu. There could be headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat, high fever, weakness, stomach pain and lack of appetite. However, as the virus advances other symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function can develop as can internal and external bleeding.
But although infected, a person may not manifest symptoms of the virus until three weeks later based on information from the World Health Organisation.
And according to Dr. Cole, Guyana, like a number of countries around the world, has been taking Ebola seriously. She was keen to point out that while there is need for more training Guyana has capacity both in terms of personnel and facilities to deal with any potential outbreak. “There is adequate capacity in terms of what will be necessary to isolate someone to take care of them,” said Dr Cole. “The missing link is ensuring that everybody is as prepared as they can be…this is one of those things in which we can’t make the small mistakes…those little breaks in the chain of patient care cannot be broken,” said Dr. Cole.
Guyana from all indication is sparing no effort to ensure that all is in order should Ebola strike, Dr. Cole said.
Dr Cole, who has practised in Chicago and Seattle, Washington, is currently assisting the local health sector through a grant funded by the University of Maryland.
She is skilled in internal medicine with sub-specialty training in Infectious Diseases.
She said, yesterday, that she has worked at Rush University Medical Centre and Cook County Hospital, the largest Government-run health facility in the US.
And according to her, for a great portion of her practice she has been engaged in dealing with Epidemiology, Infection Control and Prevention. Her outbreak-expertise has been derived from her involvement in influenza campaigns at the various hospitals she has worked.
Among the contagions that she has had to handle over the years that required isolation has included H1N1 and multi-drug resistant diseases.
“It has been 10 years since I left medical school so I have been dealing with patients in isolation ever since,” said Dr. Cole of her medical career yesterday.

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