Stokes: No Ebola at hospital thus far

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JOE PERRY / TIMESClarendon Memorial Hospital Nurse Amanda Taylor, left, and Clarendon Health System CEO Richard Stokes sat down with The Manning Times on Friday to discuss the hospital's protocols regarding Ebola screenings, and also three patients about whom DHEC was contacted this week.  The Ebola virus has not arrived in Clarendon County. But Clarendon Memorial Hospital officials believe they are ready to deal with the threat of one should a patient presenting with the disease’s symptoms come into the facility. Clarendon Health System said late Thursday night that three patients at the hospital since Saturday have been put through screening procedures in place with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control after becoming “persons of interest” due to symptoms and travel history. Chief Executive Officer Richard Stokes said Friday afternoon that the hospital began new screening procedures asking about travel history – along with identifying Ebola-like symptoms – about two weeks ago. “What we are doing at Clarendon Health is preparing ourselves and our staff to act,” Stokes said. “We are doing the things we are doing today because it’s not really necessary that we do them today. But we need to be proficient at this, and we hope that we truly are using an overabundance of caution and that we never have a patient with Ebola.” Nurse Amanda Taylor is the hospital’s point person on infectious diseases, and has become the clinical lead for the “Ebola effort at Clarendon Health,” Stokes said. “We have not gotten to the point where we have needed to run actual blood tests to see if someone has the Ebola virus,” Taylor said Friday. “We go through a set of screening procedures here at the hospital and in our clinics, and if that person is positive for those screening methods, we proceed to the DHEC protocols. DHEC then has its own set of more in-depth questions. If that person is deemed a person of interest, then we would go ahead and test them and the (Centers for Disease Control) would come and pick up that specimen. We thankfully have not gotten to that point.” Taylor said all registration at the hospital and its clinics starts with questions about travel history. “They’re questions like, ‘Have you traveled?’ ‘Where?’ ‘What type?’ ‘Was it international?’ ‘Was it airline?’ Really anything travel related,” she said. “If you answer yes to any of those questions, and you present the symptoms set forth in the CDC guidelines, the clerk is immediately notified to alert the nursing supervisor, and from there you move to the DHEC process.” Taylor said the CDC’s symptom guidelines change “almost daily” as understanding of the disease grows, but at the moment includes someone presenting with a 100.4 degree fever or higher AND “an additional symptom of muscle aches, fatigue, abdominal pain, unexplained bleeding, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.” Stokes said the hospital’s first patient who triggered the DHEC notification and protocols came in to the hospital Saturday. “This person had recently flown internationally,” Stokes said. “Without knowing the origins of who she had been around, or where she had been completely, it’s just an extra precaution you want to take.” The third patient came in Thursday. “That was a domestic flight that involved interaction with Texas,” Stokes said. A Liberian man – the first case on U.S. soil – died last week in Texas. Two nurses have sense contracted the illness. “There is an issue out there right now with fear,” Stokes said. “But we need to keep in mind that that case in the U.S. came from (West) Africa, and he did come here and expose people. But it is still very isolated. We are preparing ourselves for the worst and hoping for the best. We don’t want to have to go through all these screening procedures, but we are doing it to keep our patients and employees safe.” Stokes said those coming into the ER and the hospital’s clinics should expect a little bit longer of a wait. “Does this mean the wait is going to be longer? Yes,” he said. “But we are doing everything we can to get out in front of this, and I think we’ve been proactive and not reactive.” Stokes said other hospitals in the region have also contacted DHEC after following similar procedures, citing facilities in nearby Orangeburg. Taylor said the virus is transmitted through bodily fluids, including blood, semen and saliva, and also what she called "droplets" from sneezing. "If these come in contact with an open cut on your body, or an opening, or with your mucous membranes (your eyes, mouth, nasal passages), then there's the chance of being infected," Taylor said. She said there is some confusion between the terms "airborne" and "droplet." "Droplet involves body fluids," she said. "Airborne would be us sitting in the room or working together in a space for a while. It is not airborne at this time." Manninglive.com will have more on this story throughout the weekend, including a full FAQ, and video with Stokes, Taylor and Clarendon Health Chief Operating Officer Paul Schumacher.