Highly infectious disease training in Cole County
When it comes to emergencies, first responders like to be prepared.
“With a situation like this specific to ebola and with the consequence of making a response, it takes a lot of resources from an EMS perspective, from police and from a fire perspective”, says Mike Shirts, Director of Cole County Emergency Medical Services.
Cole County EMS had six crew members out participating in todays mock highly infectious disease training. The Jefferson City Fire Department, EMS crews, the Cole County Sheriffs Office and JCPD also helped out today.
“We practice two to three times a year with different emergencies, everyone does their one drill but this is the first time that I know of, that we’ve all came together and did an exercise together”, says Kristi Campbell, Director of the Cole County Health Department.
In todays scenario crews responded to a mock apartment scene, where two international Lincoln University students came in contact with Ebola. EMS crews donned full body uniforms and breathing masks and ambulances were fully lined inside, to prevent the disease from spreading. Officials say that if someone where to come over from one of the four African countries that have had people test positive for the disease, that we would know about it.
“We would be notified, CDC has a notification process where they let the local health department know and we would know if someone was here and we would be monitoring them, so it’s very unlikely that we would have a surprise case, unless someone traveled here from another state and we just weren’t notified, a surprise case is very unlikely we’re going to know if someone is in Cole County but this is good practice none the less”, says Campbell.
Campbell says that Ebola first starts with a fever, which then turns to the contagious symptoms that include vomiting and diarrhea.
“So when the event is a real life event, we know and understand what each perspective agencies responsibility is and we operate safely and efficiantly and deliver the care that is going to be desperately needed by that patient”, says Shirts.
