A drill on treating someone with an infectious disease, such as Ebola, will be conducted at Palomar Medical Center on Friday afternoon.
Hospital officials said the drill is particularly timely, given the recent Ebola outbreak. The deadly virus, once contained to Africa, has been treated in the U.S. for the first time this year.
Thursday, part of the Southwestern College campus in Chula Vista was cordoned-off in an Ebola scare when a student told a professor that her sister became ill following a trip to the Midwest. She later recanted the story.
Around 40 staff members at the hospital on the west side of Escondido will take part in the decontamination drill. The hospital said participants will wear protective gear like Hazmat suits, masks, gloves and boots and practice the proper crisis procedures.
The case of a Dallas nurse who contracted the disease while treating a now-deceased Ebola patient from Liberia has accelerated everybody’s time frame in preparing to combat the deadly virus, according to Dr. Zachary Rubin, UCLA’s medical director of clinical epidemiology and infection prevention. The nurse contracted the disease even though she wore protective clothing while treating the man.
Palomar Health said a decontamination trailer will be used for the drill, and a disaster surge tent will be set up and fully operational.
— City News Service
