Saskatoon health officials say they’re prepared for Ebola

Watch above: Medical professionals ready themselves for Ebola

SASKATOON – As the spread, death toll and mortality rate from Ebola continues to climb, so do concerns about whether or not the country, the province and the local health region are prepared.

Earlier this week, a dire warning was made by the World Health Organization (WHO). Ebola has killed 4,447 people out of 8,914 patients and the mortality rate has now jumped from 50 per cent to 70 per cent.

The Ebola situation is changing day by day, minute by minute.

At the MD Ambulance call center in Saskatoon, workers are now going through a series of questions in order to prepare paramedics for the worst.

“They’ve got a structure in place where they’re going to ask if someone’s been in Africa, have done any travelling overseas and if that answers yes, they’ve got a whole different set of questions where they can start checking off, so that before we even walk in the door if we are on four minute response time to six minutes, we’ll know what we’re walking into,” said Troy Davies, MD Ambulance spokesman.

In the event of a language barrier, an interpreter will be linked into the 911 call to assist.

If a case is suspected, paramedics will wear personal protective equipment covering them from head to toe.

The Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) says it’s ready as well and has been planning since July.

“The first things we did were we planned on how to receive and recognize an Ebola case,” said Dr. Johnmark Opondo, deputy medical health officer with SHR.

Health officials say they’ve been monitoring the situation in the United States very closely. On Wednesday, a second nurse who treated a patient with Ebola tested positive.

“We spent a lot of time communicating with our physicians and frontline practice folks on the screening questions and how to recognize a person who’s come from the affected area and what you need to do,” explained Opondo.

Opondo added that a person with Ebola is only infectious once they develop symptoms however the challenge is the difference between Ebola and the flu is only in the late stages which is why a patient’s travel history is so important.

“If they say yes to the travel question, did you travel to west Africa and if it’s yes to any of those two question,” Opondo says the healthcare worker must immediately.

“Isolate, put on your personal protective equipment (PPE) and then call the medical health officer on call and the infectious disease specialist on call.”

Countries that have been red flagged are Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia where Opondo says there is a raging outbreak of Ebola.

“This is the first time Ebola outbreaks have happened in capital cities in Africa usually it’s in rural areas and it burns out in the villages,” said Opondo.

Both the Saskatoon and Regina health regions have been designated to screen and treat suspected cases.

Isolation rooms have been selected at intensive care units at both St. Paul’s Hospital and Royal University Hospital.

Opondo said, based on evidence recommendations, PPE has been ordered for healthcare workers.

“The impervious gowns, impervious booties, impervious facemask, goggles, face shield and an impervious head covering.”

Although health care workers in the region know how to use PPE, it will be reviewed department by department next week.

“We’re not teaching anything new, this is really reinforcing practices that health care workers have learned throughout their careers and this is really how you protect yourself against any pathogen, including a dangerous pathogen,” explained Opondo.

When asked by Global News if the situation is being blown out of proportion, Opondo quickly responded “no.”

“Even one single case of Ebola coming into our care system has to be dealt with absolutely seriously because it would have a major impact on our work and on all our staff so we want them to be ready.”