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CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) CHI Mercy Health is preparing for Ebola, but there’s no reason for panic. CHI Mercy Health prepares for the flu season every year, too. And bad colds, respiratory illnesses, and anything else that goes around especially in the winter. We always prepare because our patients need protecting–their health is often already weakened.
Susan Kringlie, Infection Preventionist at CHI Mercy Health says we are working on plans right now to prepare and protect our staff, and there’s no need to worry–there’s been lots in the news lately–but we have plans locally and at the state and federal government levels in place to protect ourselves and the public.
Kringlie says the transmission of the virus occurs with direct contact of blood or body fluids. A person needs to actually touch the infected individual blood or body fluids, if the person is infectious.
Kringlie says, “It can only be transmitted and contracted through contact with the blood or body fluid of the infected patient. Washing hands and equipment cleaning is very important.”
Kringlie says Ebola is like the cold virus. So if you use bleach, or EPA-approved disinfectants, that should stop the transmission. So don’t be afraid, and wash your hands. Which is why cleanliness is the best preparedness, not only for Ebola, but for every disease, including influenza or the Flu.
The following story below was written by Sharon Buhr with the Young People’s Health Heart program at CHI Mercy Health in Valley City.
Buhr says the Ebola virus, the lives it has taken, and the risks it has posed is very serious. There are 8400 confirmed cases to date with 4033 fatalities worldwide, with only one fatality in the USA.
The outbreak began 50 miles north of the area in Liberia where my husband and I worked as health care volunteers for 6 months a number of years ago.
To put the Ebola crisis in perspective I’d like to share some facts and information, some of which were taken from the New York Times October 15th column by Frank Bruni.
He asks us to first answer this question: have you had your flu shot this year? During the 2013-14 flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control only 46% of Americans received vaccinations against influenza, even though it kills about 3,000 people in the US in a good year, and nearly 50,000 in a bad one. Many of these deaths could have been prevented; why aren’t we doing so? Why isn’t everyone getting a flu shot? Here’s an immediate threat we could control.
Another opportunity for us to take control is when we drive. Over 33,000 people die in car crashes every year, and more than half of them weren’t wearing their seatbelts. The death rate is much higher than Ebola and a ‘click it’ could have saved over 15,000 lives.
Without a doubt the horror of Ebola and the crisis in Africa should command the whole world’s assistance. We continue to look for definitive answers about transmission and prevention.
“But we already do have such answers about a host of other, greater perils to our health, and we’d be wiser to reacquaint ourselves with those, and recommit to heeding them, than to worry about our imminent exposure to Ebola,” states Bruni.
“People get very fearful and stressed out and have a lot of anxiety about things like Ebola that aren’t a general health risk, said Jeffrey Duchin who is the chairman of the public health committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “Just look at causes of death in the US. Everything is higher than Ebola, and there are things that we can do about many of them.”
Duchin mentioned hepatitis C virus. There are between 2.7 and 5.2 million Americans believed to be infected and deaths related to it can range from 17,000 to 80,000 annually. There’s a test and effective treatment. But the CDC says that up to 75% of the people with the virus don’t know they have it.
Meanwhile the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) took a hit of about $270 million for the 2014 budget including significant cuts to biodefense (and Ebola is a perfect example of a biological problem that can happen). It is apparent that the government should approve more funds for the development of an Ebola vaccine.
The U-S is part of a global economy—chocolate for our candy bars comes from Liberia, and Firestone gets its rubber for tires from its planation in Liberia. And people are traveling across the world daily. We need to help other less fortunate countries improve their health care systems. We can do this out of a Christian spirit (the Bible tells us to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’) or for purely selfish reasons to prevent the spread of disease to our borders.
When we worked in Liberia, I was in charge, as the public health director, of an area of 100,000 people. My husband was only 1 of 3 doctors to serve that area! Countries like Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone need help in developing their health care systems. Until health care there comes closer to equaling ours, crisis situations such as Ebola will continue to be a risk.
The question is what can we do in our area? The experts recommend to get vaccinated against diseases that we can prevent, such as the flu and measles…and wash our hands frequently. Ebola or no Ebola, it’s a responsible and frequently disregarded way to lessen health risks.
Sharon Buhr, has a masters in public health degree, and is a licensed registered dietitian who works at Sanford Health in Valley City and is also the director of the Young People’s Healthy Heart Program at CHI Mercy Health, Valley City.