What City, State Officials Learned After Montgomery Ebola Scare
It’s a scare no city wants to hear — someone there infected with Ebola. That’s exactly what happened in Montgomery last week… but that Ebola infection was a false alarm.
Montgomery Police, fire medics and hazmat crews responded to the Montgomery Eye Physicians clinic last week after a woman said she’d experienced Ebola symptoms, then told medics her son had just returned from Nigeria. She was cleared of the disease.
Barbara Cardinal was in charge of making sure the clinic followed protocol. She says it was a relief after having emergency crews on scene for about eight hours.
“But we still have to be prepared. We have to be prepared for any situation such as this that presents itself,” Said Cardinal.
It’s why city leaders and health officials are going over what they’ve learned from the situation and the importance of proper equipment.
“First responders need to have this isolation bubble if you will, to be able to transport. Not only for Ebola, but any other infectious disease that we have to move people from one point to another,” Said Mayor Todd Strange.
But it’s the time it takes to move people that has state health officer, Don Williamson concerned.
“We can work on transports so it doesn’t take so long, so it doesn’t require hazmat to show up just to deal with a patient who has a flu-like illness,” Said Williamson.
Williamson says it also takes help from the patient to get accurate information. In Friday’s case, he says the 83-year-old Nigerian patient told medics her son had just returned from Nigeria. That was not the case.
“The next thing we’re going to want to address is with hospitals– trying to identify what do we need to have a few centers of excelennce so that if we have a patient, once they are diagnosed do we need to move them?” Said Williamson.
Williamson says he’s speaking with local hospitals tomorrow about infection control. He says the state health department is also partnering with airlines to get the names of people traveling back to Montgomery from infected areas to monitor their fever for 21 days.
