Representatives from area hospitals and emergency teams met with health officials to discuss the disease that continues to lead headlines.
More than a dozen groups held a round-table discussion Monday to ensure that the situation in Dallas where a patient with Ebola was sent home after seeking medical treatment for flu-like symptoms, does not happen in Kentucky. Dr. Rice Leach, the Health Commissioner with the Fayette County Health Department said his agency and hospitals in the area have held several “practice runs” and this summer, measures put in place were held to the test. “Two people did fly in here from Liberia and did get sick and we exercised the entire response process promptly, worked them up and found out in neither case was in Ebola. But the point is, we were on it immediately and did the right things.” Leach said there was a third case of a student from Liberia who was attending college in Central Kentucky this fall. Again, the patient was cleared of the disease.
We asked Dr Greg Davis, WUKY’s medical news contributor if the possibility of catching Ebola needed to be a realistic concern. “No we should not! You have infinitely more chance of dying of a lightning strike or being hit by a car in Lexington than you do of contracting Ebola.”
Dr. Davis said even in West Africa which is the epicenter of Ebola, ten times as many people are dying every day of malaria. Health experts at Monday’s round table agreed. However Leach said they have identified ways to improve communications. One way will be to train the entire hospital staff to ask specific questions to identify potential patients who could be infected.