Dr. Kent Brantly, the first American survivor of the Ebola virus, was at Ohio Valley University in Vienna Monday night passing on his message about battling the disease.
Brantly was diagnosed with Ebola while serving as a doctor for Samaritan’s Purse Mission in Liberia. What happened next is the story that led to the not-yet-published book that he and his wife, Amber, wrote. Brantly was working as a doctor in Liberia when the news came that Ebola had spread to the country.
I never thought that I would get Ebola, you don’t step into that situation thinking, ‘Well I might get it.’ We took every precaution, we followed every protocol, we used the proper equipment and the proper procedures to protect ourselves, but when I got sick and I woke up not feeling well, I wasn’t naive enough to think that I could not have Ebola, that it was impossible. – Dr. Kent Brantly
Brantly said on Wednesday July 23rd, 2014, he woke up feeling not quite right. He says his early symptoms,
which included a lack of a fever and some stomach discomfort, led him to believe it may be malaria. But he says by noon that day his fever spiked, eventually reaching 104.9 degrees. That set in motion a series of events that had him transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where he would be nursed back to health.
He said that while he may be recovered and there may be no active cases in the United States, he doesn’t want the public to forget about those countries still dealing with the epidemic.
Out of sight and out of mind, it’s true. We stop thinking about and worrying about the things that don’t affect us, we don’t build up great concern about people we don’t know and that is a problem because every person that’s dying over there is someone’s mother or brother or sister or father. – Dr. Kent Brantly
Kent Brantly was included in Time Magazine’s “2014 Person of the Year” issue in their recognition of “The Ebola Fighters.”
Kent’s ties to the mountain state are through his father, a graduate of St. Albans High School and the West Virginia University School of Medicine.
Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown is now equipped and prepared with what’s called an Infection Prevention and Containment Unit, complete with five isolations rooms, in the event that any sick person be admitted who has had any possible exposure to the Ebola virus.
A WVU Healthcare Ebola Task Force is now prepared for any potential encounters with the virus. Personnel from emergency medicine, infectious diseases, nursing, and several other areas of the hospital have undergone training and the hospital spent half a million dollars converting a section of its emergency department into a special unit designed to protect both patients and healthcare workers.
Medical Director of the Emergency Department, Dr. Owen Lander says the facility is modeled on facilities in the country that have already effectively contained and treated Ebola patients.
“I think it’s important to emphasize that the risk is low, but the stakes are high,” he said.
In addition to the isolation rooms, the Infection Prevention and Containment Unit includes a lab for blood tests, and specific rooms for donning and removing protective clothing and equipment. Patients who arrive at the hospital are triple-screened using protocols recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The week a healthcare worker in West Virginia completes his 21-day monitoring period after a month in Liberia.
Scott Laney – Epidemiologist (NIOSH)
Epidemiologist Scott Laney works for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown. NIOSH is a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and sends people all over the world to investigate diseases.
Scott Laney came to Morgantown six years ago to investigate the respiratory health of coal miners, but as things continued to escalate with the Ebola epidemic in Africa, he felt duty-bound to volunteer in relief efforts.
Laney has a background in infectious diseases, and molecular epidemiology and tumor virology. Before being recruited to NIOSH in 2008, he was part of then joined the Epidemic Intelligence Service in 2006, a CDC-program.
He volunteered in August. Two weeks later, he was on a plane to Liberia.
Credit Scott Laney / CDC
/
CDC
Laney putting together chlorine handwashing buckets for affected communities.
Liberia
Laney spent the first three or four days in the capital city of Monrovia designing case-control studies for healthcare workers—to help figure out how exactly so many healthcare workers are falling ill. Then he spent much of October in the rural western county of Bong.
A letter home: “… I am currently working in one of the most impacted areas in Western Africa where prior to my arrival no one had yet visited. My focus has been centered around the village of Mawah in Bong county – an isolated community that is far off the beaten path and virtually inaccessible. This village of 850 people housed a traveler from Monrovia some time back for one evening as he was passing through by foot. This individual had Ebola and an incredible outbreak occurred as a result. In the last month numerous people have died and I have arranged transport by ambulance of 25 more in the last 10 days…”
Laney’s work was part of the effort to get a real idea of how many people are being affected by the disease.
QUICK FACT: In March of this year, the first Ebola infection was recorded in Liberia. To date, the CDC reports, over 6,000 cases and over 2,000 deaths.
Laney would go out to visit communities and log records of all of his experiences—everything from cultural interactions and observations, to observing burial techniques.
Laney Log: 10-7-14 … The stories I heard to today are too countless to tell but this village is hypervigilant. They have been strictly instructed not to accept any outsiders into the village. There are multiple road blocks and men at these locations making sure that does not happen. I asked Dr. Freeman what would happen if a visibly sick individual approached the village and he said the guards were instructed to tell them to go away by any means necessary. At night a family of 6 from the bush – two of which were ill – were taken in by a community member in Bong mines. The community threatened to burn his house down if he did not send them away. Fortunately, ambulances were in route and these two patients were taken to an ETU. The father and children were sent back to the bush. …At the river we heard a rumor that a party of individuals were suggesting that someone should go to Mawah and poison the water to kill the villagers so no one from there could enter into other communities…
Credit Scott Laney / CDC
/
CDC
From Laney Log: …We returned to observe the burial of the body. I witnessed the removal of the body and burial and the donning and doffing of PPE by the burial team. It was no where near as elegant as the IMC teams response at the stadium but the few breaches were addressed and I provided guidance on the issues moving forward….
Laney says he encountered a culture steeped in a terrifying epidemic with all the tragedy and discord that comes with it. But the only thing about his experience that surprised him was discovering, upon his return home 21-days ago, how the American public and politicians were responding to people like him, healthcare workers returning home.
A Return Home
Laney returned home October 17th.
He was screened before he left Liberia, then upon entering the U.S., then again at the CDC. Finally he made his way home to his young family in Preston County. He didn’t have too difficult a time. But the story is different for many colleagues.
The CDC just released recommendations detailing appropriate measures to take to monitor health workers who have worked around Ebola. For the past 21 days, Laney has been recording and reporting daily temperature and symptom assessments.
An email from CDC: Dear Anthony "Scott" Laney, Thank you for taking the time today to discuss the CDC active monitoring protocol and for your recent service to the CDC Ebola Response. This email confirms the 21-day monitoring activities and documentation we discussed on the phone. Your monitoring timeframe ends on 11/8/14. We ask that you: • Monitor and record your temperature twice a day (morning and evening). • Monitor yourself for unexplained fatigue, severe headache, muscle pain, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain or unexplained bleeding or bruising. We request that you also send your temperature and your symptom assessment to the CDC IMS Employee Active Monitoring email box by completing the information in the boxes below and replying to this email by noon each day until your end date of 11/8/14….
Another email from the CDC: Dear CDC staff, Thank you for your service to the Ebola response. We have received feedback that some employees and family members of employees have encountered difficulty going to school or work due to restrictions imposed upon them based upon fear. In order to ease your transition back to your home and workplace and to alleviate employer and school fears, we have drafted three letters for CDC employees returning from Ebola-related deployments: 1. A letter for family and close contacts; 2. A letter for persons determined to be at no identifiable risk, to be distributed to all employees determined to be at no identifiable risk after completion of the post-deployment risk assessment; (most of you are not in this category.) 3. A letter for persons determine to be at low (but not zero) risk, to be distributed to all employees determined to be at low (but not zero) risk – typically, these would be employees deployed to Liberia, Sierra Leone, or Guinea. …
In West Virginia:
Laney also points out that his community in West Virginia, especially in Preston County, has been a reliable source of comfort and encouragement. He says he hopes that attitude persists for other West Virginian healthcare workers who will soon also be returning home.
As to whether or not Laney will return to continue public health efforts in Africa—he says it’s possible he’ll go back the spring.
In an open seminar at the Berkeley Medical Center in Martinsburg, Ebola preparedness was the focus of discussion. It’s been in the headlines across the country for a while now, but should West Virginians really feel at risk of contracting the disease? Doctors in the state say West Virginians have little to fear.
To help the public understand what’s really going on with Ebola, a public seminar hosted by the University Healthcare Berkeley and Jefferson Medical Centers was held at the West Virginia University Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center in Martinsburg.
The first half of the seminar explained Ebola and the second, how prepared area hospitals are to handle it. Wayne Selzer is one of the 100 community members who attended the seminar.
“Level of preparedness can never be high enough, and the best level of preparedness is self-preparedness,” said Selzer, “So more seminars like this, along with public involvement as well will help calm who have fears against those with no training whatsoever.”
Dr. Matthew Simmons, the infectious disease specialist at Berkeley Medical Center, was one of the speakers. He says he felt like the seminar helped calm any fears the community might have, but they don’t need to feel like they have to be prepared.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Dr. Roberta DeBiasi, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children’s National Medical Center.
“There’s very little that a person in the community has to do to protect themselves from Ebola at this point, because the risk of transmission is so low,” noted Simmons.
Dr. Roberta DeBiasi, the chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children’s National Medical Center says you only have to worry about the virus if you’re showing symptoms.
“It really is very, very important as to where you have been, because it’s really not a widespread epidemic. It’s not at all spreading in the United States,” said DeBiasi, “So unless you had those symptoms, and you were in contact, like you were a nurse or a doctor and took care of a patient who had Ebola, then we would not worry that you had Ebola virus.”
DeBiasi tried to help put it into perspective that more people die from influenza in the US than Ebola.
“I think it’s just human nature, if it’s unusual we’re a little more nervous about it, even if it’s not really a thing you should be worried about,” said DeBiasi.
The final message the doctors gave the audience was simply…to stay calm.
The chairman of the House of Delegates Health and Human Resource committee says he will put discussion about the Ebola virus on the agenda when it meets next month.
A letter signed by 11 Republican members of the committee asked Delegate Don Perdue to include the issue as a special agenda item during interim meetings in November.
The delegates recommend that the committee hear from Dr. Letitia Tierney, the Commissioner for the Bureau of Public Health and the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department about the steps that are being taken in West Virginia to address this serious health concern. Perdue said today he has been in touch with Secretary of Health and Human Resources Karen Bowling about Ebola.
“We will put it on our agenda in November and in the intervening period, I’ve asked Secretary Bowling and Commissioner Tierney to also keep us updated, keep our staff updated on anything that transpires in the intervening period that has moment and importance that rises to the level of having to communicate to our members,” said Perdue.
Lawmakers are at the capitol for this month’s interim meetings. Next month’s will be held on November 17th through the 19th.
No Ebola cases have emerged in West Virginia, but hospitals, state health officials and residents are preparing for the worst.
West Virginia University’s public affairs office sent an email this week to the entire campus community – more than 35,000 people – explaining protocols from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those include remembering to frequently wash hands and avoiding touching blood or body fluids of sick people.
CDC hospital guidelines for Ebola infection control were updated Aug. 1. Spokesman Tony Gregory of the West Virginia Hospital Association says hospitals are prepared but in the process of improving standards.
State Department of Health and Human Resources spokesman Toby Wagoner says residents need to keep Ebola in perspective.
There have been no reported cases of Ebola in the state.
