If a person with a possible case of Ebola shows up at an Akron hospital, area health-care experts say they’re prepared to treat the patient and protect the public.
Akron’s three hospital systems and the Summit County Public Health department have been making plans to handle Ebola since the number of cases in west African counties began to spike in August, Summit County Public Health Medical Director Dr. Marguerite Erme said.
Concern about the deadly viral disease grew nationwide this week, when the first U.S.-diagnosed case was confirmed in a person who had traveled to Dallas from west Africa.
“Any infection from any part of the world is only a plane ride away from Akron, so we need to be aware of that,” said Dr. Thomas File, chair of the infectious disease division at Summa Health System. “The case in Dallas just illustrates the point that we have to be on high alert, and that’s what we are doing.”
Akron Children’s Hospital is hanging signs asking visitors to alert staff if they have traveled within the past 21 days to west African countries where Ebola outbreaks are occurring, said Dr. John Bower, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at the hospital.
People can become ill within 21 days after exposure to a patient with symptoms.
Patients with fevers who have recently traveled to outbreak areas would be placed in a room by themselves for further evaluation, Bower said. Staff would wear protective equipment, including gloves, a face shield, gown and mask.
The health department also would be notified, he said.
“The risk is low, but that does not negate the importance of preparation,” Bower said. “We’re employing a more aggressive approach because of the greater risk associated with it, even though the likelihood is very low.”
A key to identifying a potential case of Ebola — or any disease that originates from other parts of the world — is asking about or disclosing recent travel, Erme said.
The CDC is recommending U.S. residents avoid nonessential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the outbreak is occurring.
“People travel all over the world, and there are diseases all over the world that can come back with them,” Erme said. “Asking about travel if you are a health-care practitioner or divulging travel if you’re a patient is very important because if you don’t, the health-care practitioner might potentially miss something that is not commonly seen here.”
Ebola is spread through close contact with a person with symptoms, which include fever, severe headache, muscle pain, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain and unexplained bleeding or bruising.
“It appears it is only transmitted once people are clinically sick,” said Summa’s File.
Average mortality rate is 50 percent, according to the World Health Organization.
However, the conditions in west African countries likely are contributing to the disease outbreak and high mortality rate, said Dr. Gary E. Bollin, chief of infectious diseases and medical director of infection control for Akron General Health System. Even basic hand-washing might not be possible in many of the outbreak areas.
“One of the problems now is that it arose in a very densely populated, urban area,” he said. “There’s a lot of crowding and not much education about sanitation. It’s difficult to quarantine people if you’re living in a slum area that has several thousand residents.”
U.S. hospitals have advanced infection control and supportive care — things that aren’t always readily available in poor countries, File said.
“The high mortality is a reflection of the poor resources they have there and the poverty and the inability to provide some of the patients with intravenous fluids that might allow them to survive this,” he said. “It’s clear that the numbers of cases have overwhelmed the facilities and the ability of the number of clinicians to handle them.”
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or cpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Powell on Twitter at twitter.com/CherylPowellABJ.