From the G & M:
"Ottawa readies Ebola response team, provinces designate treatment centres"
Ottawa has a team of infectious disease experts on standby and the majority of Canadian provinces have designated specific Ebola treatment centres as this country tries to prepare for a killer virus that has now infected two U.S. nurses, raising serious questions about whether the average North American hospital can safely treat Ebola patients. Health Minister Rona Ambrose said Wednesday evening that if Ebola makes its way to Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada would send a crew of epidemiologists and other experienced outbreak managers to help halt the spread of the virus, something the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now admits it should have done in a more robust manner after the first case of Ebola was diagnosed in Dallas last month. Meanwhile, every province from Alberta to Nova Scotia – with the exception of Ontario – has already selected two or more designated hospitals where health-care workers are supposed to receive extra training to treat possible Ebola patients. At least one British Columbia health authority has designated a hospital, and Ontario is in the process of choosing its designated hospitals now, according to the province’s Health Minister. The Canadian approach is an acknowledgment that not all hospitals can cope with Ebola patients, a reality underscored by the apparent bungling at the Dallas hospital that treated the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. – Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who died of the disease. Infectious-disease experts said Wednesday that tapping some hospitals as treatment centres makes sense, so long as staff at other hospitals and health-care facilities are trained to flag patients with Ebola symptoms and a history of travel to the Ebola-affected region. “Every hospital needs to have a basic ability to ask the questions and isolate somebody while they’re figuring out what to do next,” said Michael Gardam, the director of infection prevention and control at the University Health Network in Toronto. Ontario is also poised to the be the last of five selected provinces to be ready to run rapid, preliminary lab tests for Ebola. Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta all have the capability now; Nova Scotia is expected to by next week. Preliminary positives would still have to be sent to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.
^ The US missed the mark in isolating Ebola and so hopefully Canada will learn from these mistakes and treat their sick better and faster. ^
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/ottawa-readies-ebola-response-team-provinces-designate-treatment-centres/article21121980/
"Ottawa readies Ebola response team, provinces designate treatment centres"
Ottawa has a team of infectious disease experts on standby and the majority of Canadian provinces have designated specific Ebola treatment centres as this country tries to prepare for a killer virus that has now infected two U.S. nurses, raising serious questions about whether the average North American hospital can safely treat Ebola patients. Health Minister Rona Ambrose said Wednesday evening that if Ebola makes its way to Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada would send a crew of epidemiologists and other experienced outbreak managers to help halt the spread of the virus, something the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now admits it should have done in a more robust manner after the first case of Ebola was diagnosed in Dallas last month. Meanwhile, every province from Alberta to Nova Scotia – with the exception of Ontario – has already selected two or more designated hospitals where health-care workers are supposed to receive extra training to treat possible Ebola patients. At least one British Columbia health authority has designated a hospital, and Ontario is in the process of choosing its designated hospitals now, according to the province’s Health Minister. The Canadian approach is an acknowledgment that not all hospitals can cope with Ebola patients, a reality underscored by the apparent bungling at the Dallas hospital that treated the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. – Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who died of the disease. Infectious-disease experts said Wednesday that tapping some hospitals as treatment centres makes sense, so long as staff at other hospitals and health-care facilities are trained to flag patients with Ebola symptoms and a history of travel to the Ebola-affected region. “Every hospital needs to have a basic ability to ask the questions and isolate somebody while they’re figuring out what to do next,” said Michael Gardam, the director of infection prevention and control at the University Health Network in Toronto. Ontario is also poised to the be the last of five selected provinces to be ready to run rapid, preliminary lab tests for Ebola. Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta all have the capability now; Nova Scotia is expected to by next week. Preliminary positives would still have to be sent to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.
^ The US missed the mark in isolating Ebola and so hopefully Canada will learn from these mistakes and treat their sick better and faster. ^
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/ottawa-readies-ebola-response-team-provinces-designate-treatment-centres/article21121980/
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