Representatives of local groups presented the facts about Ebola, promote awareness of the virus, and emergency plans at a public press conference/panel discussion on Thursday at Clarion University chaired by Glenn Reid, director of emergency management at Clarion University.

“Our purposes was to provide a little outreach to the public and answer some questions about Ebola and what is being done in the local area,” said Reid.

She was joined by Lynn Mason (CNRP) at the university health center; Sally Regina-Payne, ER Nurse Manager at Clarion Hospital; Lori Lencer, Clarion Hospital Infection Control; Vern Smith, Clarion County Emergency Management and 911; and William Logue, Clarion County Emergency Services.

Ebola is a rare and deadly virus that originated in Africa in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Congo. Four of the five identified Ebola species have caused infection in humans, with the current outbreak caused by the Zaire species.

Ebola is spread through direct contact with blood and body fluids and is not spread through the air, water, or food, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The usual incubation period for the virus is eight to ten days.

A person infected with the Ebola virus is not contagious until symptoms appear, according to all of Thursday’s speakers and the CDC.

Signs and symptoms of Ebola typically include:

• Fever (greater that 101.5 degrees F
• Sever headache
• Muscle pain
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Stomach pain
• Unexplained bleeding or bruising

Preparing for Ebola

“All hospitals are being charged with preparing, and it’s not like we don’t have a level of preparedness,” said Lencer. “In the disaster world, we have what we consider all-hazards preparation, and we have many plans for that. There are some unique aspects of people that have required us to rethink some of our processes and perhaps expand on it.”

“Number one is from when the nurses initially took care of that patient in Texas. If we followed our traditional guidelines of isolation, we have three different levels….we have contact, we have droplet, and airborne. We knew Ebola needs contact and droplet and before that, it never required full body coverage where every ounce of our skin is covered. That is a new thing, and nurses are not as familiar with, so every hospital is working on what equipment do we want to use and what is the safest sequence to get it off that the individual is not going to be contaminating themselves or anyone else.”

The Ketchup Test

Lencer said they have experimented in the ER, and there are things that need to be tweaked. She was headed to the ER after the press conference/discussion and was going to practice and douse them in ketchup and see if they get the protective clothes off without getting ketchup on them.

“You need that visual and not deal with the theoretical to see if it’s going to work,” said Lencer.

The Clarion University Health Center took early steps before the virus was known to be in the United States.

“We didn’t have any students from those areas, and we made sure none of our students had travelled abroad for that semester and then came to the university,” said Matson. “We found we did not have any students in those areas, and if we had, we would have contacted the CDC about monitoring those students for 21 days, but luckily we didn’t have to do that. We have been receiving updates from CDC and other health organizations and will implement procedures that would be required of any health facility.”

Clarion County Emergency Administration has also taken steps at the 911 dispatcher level to be aware of the possibility of any of its callers suffering from Ebola.

“We’ve implemented additional questioning to help isolate and interpret the signs and symptoms of Ebola versus the flu,” said Smith. “It has not necessarily affected our dispatch capabilities. We have some standard questions and additional questions to keep the caller on the line. We ask them if they have been out of the country in the last 30 days versus the last 21 days because when someone has an emergency they’re usually not thinking very clearly, and if we ask them 21 days, I can just see someone sitting there counting, and we’re trying to make it very simple for them.”

“We also ask about extended fevers, and if they have, ask have you had any contact with any person outside of the country in the last 30 days? If they say yes, we pursue that question a little bit more to see if it was a hot zone, and if they answer any one question negatively that pretty much negates the Ebola concern.”

Smith said CDC has 15 questions to ask if concerns are raised.

“We do not want to delay the dispatch to the appropriate agency, but keep the caller on the line. If we feel the patients fall into what we call the high-risk area or red zone, we will ask the additional questions.”