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.
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.
So far, he said, there has been one imported case of Ebola and two additional cases in health-care workers treating that patient.
We've 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.
Meyer told people to be respectful of Ebola, not to be afraid of it.
Nevertheless, hospital workers and first responders have spent the last few weeks preparing for it and training for worst-case scenarios.
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 "Ask, Isolate, Call" 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.
"Our receptionist should ask if you have traveled to West Africa," Meyer said.
Meyer told the group gathered last week that the hospital in Cortez is ready to deal with it, if the worst were to happen.
"We are very fortunate in that we have six isolation rooms in our hospital," he said.
He added that the hospital researched its cleaning products and that the alcohol hand rubs kills the disease.
Eventually, the patients would be transported.
"If you have travel history to West Africa in the last 21 days, you need to call the health department," Meyer said.
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.
According to recent data, Ebola has seen 13,703 cases in West Africa and 4,922 deaths with a 36 percent death rate.
"It's not as bad as they are saying in the news, but it is still a very bad disease," Meyer said.
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.
Meyer gave an example.
"Ebola is highly infectious, but not highly transmissible," he said. "For example, if one of us in this room had the measles and we all weren't vaccinated, we would all get the measles. If one of us had Ebola, we likely wouldn't get it unless you came into contact with their body fluids."
One firefighter spoke up.
"I'm not afraid of it, as long as we respect it," said Charles Balke, assistant fire chief with the Cortez Fire Protection District. "If it does hit here, we are fully prepared."
Liberian native worries about family
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.
Kamara is a native of Liberia, one of the countries hit hardest with the deadly disease, and although he hasn't lived in Liberia in 25 years and hasn't visited it in five years, his nephews and sister are still there.
Kamara calls often and gives his sister advice.
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't, to wear regular clothing that covers her up. And if she is around someone with Ebola, to throw those clothes away.
'In Africa, we open our doors to people. People can go in and out of your home all day,' Kamara said.
He told her to shut her door and not to hug people, a common greeting for his sister.
Kamara said that such an outbreak wouldn't occur in the U.S.
'In 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,' Kamara said. 'Don't look at Africa's hospitals the same as here.'
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.
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 - water.
'Some people have hobbies. I can still work as a pharmacist and build one well at a time,' he said.
Kamara said that civil war tore apart West Africa in the 1990s.
'Before the war, Liberia had hospitals, doctors, electricity. The place was nice,' he said. 'The civil war destroyed the infrastructure.'
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.
'Here, Americans should not panic about the disease. Although we know it's a deadly disease, the sanitary conditions in these hospitals are so much more advanced,' he said.
