By Rashad Rolle

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

EMERGENCY Medical Services professionals in New Providence got a chance yesterday to try on the personal protective gear they will be required to wear if they have to deal with an Ebola patient.

The training came a day after Prime Minister Perry Christie vowed that the country is ready to tackle the Ebola threat.

A task force has been appointed to spearhead the country’s preparedness.

EMS professionals were taken through a step-by-step demonstration on how to protect themselves from contracting Ebola by Dr Todd Sorde, an EMS professional with 32 years of experience in the field. Dr Sorde has a PhD in public health.

Dr Sorde, who is also the president of the American Emergency Educational Institute (EEI), led those attending through a detailed process on how to wear the protective garments and use disinfectants.

“The more they practice and follow the procedures, they will be helped tremendously,” he told The Tribune at a training session at the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) yesterday.

Adding that the PHA has bought enough equipment to help EMS personnel do their job successfully in the event of local cases of Ebola, Dr Sorde said EMS personnel should practice the process of protecting themselves on a quarterly basis.

EMS Director Dr Alvery Hanna also emphasised the importance of the training.

“Any communicable disease, and in this case we’re dealing specifically with Ebola, we want to make sure the safety of the healthcare worker is first and foremost so that’s very important,” she said. “Because we would not have had experience with putting on this type of attire, training is of utmost importance and this is why we would’ve wanted to engage someone from overseas so that Dr Sorde who is the EMS consultant, has a long history of training in EMS, so he is here to conduct this training. 

“It is very important for EMS personnel particularly because they are the front line workers and first responders, but in this setting we are not only having EMS benefiting from the lessons. This is opened up to our private colleagues as well as Doctors Hospital, Red Cross, other persons who would be involved as well as the Department of Public Health. So we have a cross-section of persons who will be attending the four sessions we will be hosting over the next four days. We’re going to be repeating this information. Persons will actually get the opportunity to put their garments on and practise taking them off and among the grouping. We consider this very important. It’s vital and is all a part of our preparedness for dealing with a potential case of Ebola.”

Dr Hanna added that the education into the matter has already taken place among EMS professionals in Grand Bahama.

“This has taken place already in Grand Bahama and Saturday it will happen in Abaco,” she said. “We are inviting volunteers and first responders.”

She added: “Over 150 people would’ve had contact with the training already. In terms of putting on and taking off garments, I don’t think we would have everyone doing it, but I think it’s important to visualise it and to make persons comfortable with it. Training is not a one time thing, of course. It has to be ongoing. We will be doing refresher training over the next three weeks.”

Two nurses at a hospital in Dallas, Texas, contracted Ebola after caring for patient Thomas Duncan who died from the disease earlier this month. He was the first person to die of the virus after arriving in the US from Liberia.

The virus has killed more than 4,500 people and has spread across five countries in West Africa – Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Nigeria and Senegal have since been cleared by the World Health Organisation after being Ebola-free for six weeks.