SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Army News Service, Nov. 26, 2014) -- Army Medical Command personnel are trained and prepared to treat any potential Ebola patient arriving at an Army treatment facility.
All healthcare providers working in MEDCOM treatment facilities have received new training protocols ensuring continuation of daily operations, while practicing aggressive, rigorous, and consistent methods to screen, identify, isolate, and treat a potential patient from arrival to admission and ensuing care.
Family members seeking care at civilian hospitals will also benefit from enhanced training and guidelines for military responders to ensure a safe healthcare environment, while providing effective treatment and care for potential Ebola patients. The Department of Defense's activation of a 30-person Ebola rapid response medical team, led by U.S. Northern Command, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, is now in place to bolster civilian hospital efforts to combat domestic cases of Ebola.
The joint team will include 20 critical care nurses and five doctors trained in treating infectious patients. The team will also include five trainers who are experts in infectious disease protocols and on the proper use of personal protective equipment. The group will receive specialized training from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, which has played a significant role in assisting the Ebola virus outbreak response in West Africa.
Everyone has role in stopping the spread of Ebola. That role is to work with the healthcare community to cross-communicate information and promote healthy behaviors gained from knowledge, experience, and lessons learned of survivors, caregivers, and providers who have successfully contained and eradicated Ebola since it first appeared, in 1976.
PREVENT EBOLA
Ebola Virus Disease, or EVD, is an illness that can start in a patient two to 21 days after they became infected with the virus, but typically illness begins in 8-10 days. The most common symptoms of EVD are fever, tiredness, loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, and stomach pain. Rash, red eyes and the bleeding some people think of when they hear about Ebola are not commonly seen.
The most common signs and symptoms of EVD are the same as more common diseases found in Africa, such as malaria or influenza. Even food poisoning or a heat injury can cause these symptoms. Caregivers, healthcare providers, and members of the total force can avoid being exposed by following good personal hygiene practices and using appropriate protective equipment when in contact with ill people.
At this time, no U.S. military personnel will be providing medical care directly to patients with Ebola and are at low risk of becoming infected. Soldiers deploying to the affected countries are provided specialized training on Ebola and how to protect themselves. They will understand how to avoid being exposed, how to use personal protective equipment, how to decontaminate themselves and their equipment if a potential exposure occurred, how to recognize signs of illness, and how to access medical care if needed.
The jobs the Soldiers are doing are not expected to put them at high risk of being exposed to Ebola, but they will be ready to protect themselves if an unexpected situation occurs.
Ebola has not spread through casual contact with other people during normal activities, such as dining out or shopping. You cannot get Ebola from drinking water, eating cooked food, or being bitten by insects like mosquitoes or ticks.
ARMY WORKING TO PROTECT HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS
An important step is new guidance received for wearing personal protective equipment, or PPE, to be used by healthcare workers. The procedures provide detailed guidance on the types of personal protective equipment to be used and on the processes for putting on and removing PPE for all healthcare workers entering the room of a patient hospitalized with Ebola.
Healthcare workers, laboratory personnel, and family members of an EVD patient are at the highest risk for exposure, because they are most likely to be in close contact with very sick EVD patients.
Individuals who have close personal contact with EVD patients such as family members or medical workers not wearing proper personal protective equipment are at greatest risk of contracting EVD. Practicing standard infection control precautions, including hand washing and wearing appropriate personal protective equipment prevent exposure.
GLOBAL COALITION FOR EBOLA RESPONSE AND PREPAREDNESS
The MEDCOM Emergency Management department is fully integrated and coordinated with national healthcare coalitions and emergency first responders to detect, protect, and respond to Ebola.
National and locally integrated healthcare coalitions are in place to support member efforts to review infection control policies and procedures, and suggest that their members incorporate plans for administrative, environmental, and communication measures.
Healthcare coalitions are in place to also help define work practices that will be required to detect persons possibly infected with Ebola or other infectious germs; prevent spread throughout the community; and manage the impact on patients, healthcare facilities, and staff.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, in addition to other federal, state, and local members, aim to increase understanding of the EVD and encourage community-level preparedness for U.S. Healthcare Coalitions and their members in managing patients with Ebola and other infectious diseases.
New CDC Guidance for Ebola PPE Calls for "No Skin in the Game," stressing the importance of adhering to detailed guidance on PPE processes.
NEXT STEPS FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY
MEDCOM recommends that individuals continue to monitor the Army Medicine Public Health Command website for the latest information: http://phc.amedd.army.mil/topics/discond/ diseases/Pages/EbolaVirusDisease.aspx.
Additionally, it is recommended that at home, work, and socially, individuals continue to monitor their family's movements and those of theirs loved ones to ensure they are not showing Ebola-like symptoms. The Army Medicine Ebola Information Line is available 24/7. The information line can be reached in the United States at 800-984-8523. Overseas callers may dial DSN 312-421-3700.
Ebola was first spread to humans by direct contact with infected animals. It then spread from person to person by direct contact with blood, secretions, organs, or bodily fluids such as sweat, vomit, and diarrhea of infected people. Only people who have symptoms of Ebola, or have recently died from Ebola, can transmit the virus to others, and the risk of spreading the infection increases as the disease progresses.
Surfaces contaminated with an EVD patient's blood or other body fluids are also possible sources of infection. Ebola is not spread through the air like a common cold or by casual contact like sitting next to someone or having a conversation.
It is not spread through drinking water, eating cooked food, or being bitten by insects like mosquitoes or ticks. Just being in a country where people are ill with EVD is not dangerous. One can avoid being exposed to Ebola virus by understanding how it is spread and by taking basic preventive measures. People infected with Ebola can only spread the virus to others after they become ill.
(Dr. Valecia L. Dunbar is an Army Medicine Public Affairs Specialist and Professor of Homeland Security, Army-Baylor MHA/MBA Program.)
(For more ARNEWS stories, visit www.army.mil/ARNEWS, or Facebook at www.facebook.com/ArmyNewsService, or Twitter @ArmyNewsService)
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