CDC Director Reports On Field Visit To Ebola Affected Countries
“I
visited all three countries where Ebola is spreading. The men, women
and children I met and spoke with, the health care workers
responding to people from within countries, patients, the survivors
and relatives of those who died will always be with me.”
With these haunting words, CDC Director Tom Frieden opened his press
briefing on September 2, 2014 to report on his recent trip to
Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in West Africa where Ebola is
spreading.
Hopeful About
Control
According to Frieden, the number of cases continues to increase and
is increasing rapidly. CDC has called the situation “daunting” but
Frieden appeared still hopeful the outbreak could be brought under
control, primarily because we know what to do. According to Frieden,
“In theory, its not hard to stop Ebola…There’s nothing mysterious
about what we need to do. The only real question is whether we will
do it fast enough.”
Put another way, Frieden told the press “…the epidemic is so
overwhelming what it requires is an overwhelming response. Rapidly,
effectively deploying resources to tamp it down where it’s spreading
wildly.”
To Do List
The list of things to do is not difficult but poses several
challenges in the West African context where so many deficiencies
and shortcomings in resources of all kinds persist. Included on the
to do list are the following which Frieden said need to be carried
out consistently and at the scale needed.
-
Find patients quickly
-
Isolate them effectively and promptly.
-
Treat them.
-
Make sure their contacts are traced and tracked
for 21 days.
-
If contacts develop fever, make sure they are
tested and treated.
-
Make sure health care is safe.
-
Make sure burial practices are safe.
Examples of Success
He gave two examples, one with Firestone rubber company in Liberia
and one with a military hospital there. Both of these groups had
Ebola cases but were able to halt transmission by doing what we know
to do with Ebola. Thus, the immediate challenge, according to
Frieden, is not to discover new knowledge or develop new treatments
or vaccines, as helpful as these might be someday, but to apply what
we already know about how to stop Ebola. The examples cited
demonstrate that it can be done in West Africa as has been done
elsewhere in Africa.
Expert Comment
He quoted one of the most experienced Ebola experts in the world who
was in West Africa during his visit and the expert’s statement to
Frieden summed up his visit, said Frieden. According to the expert,
“What has worked to stop every Ebola outbreak until now will work
here if we can get it to scale. That’s the number one challenge”.
Routes of
Transmission
According to Frieden, the outbreak is spreading through only two
principal means of transmission, namely people caring for other
people in hospitals and homes, and unsafe burial practices where
people come into contact with body fluids of someone who has died
from Ebola.
New Learning
Asked by one of the reporters what he had learned differently about
the outbreak after being there, Frieden responded that despite
understanding the data as well as they do at CDC, seeing the
tremendous increases in cases first hand is different and very
difficult. Also, he reiterated, “The challenge is not knowing what
to do. The challenge is doing it now. And I come back with that
perspective even more forcefully in my mind than [when] I left with
it.” ■
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