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."