The 40-plus member team of the Biocontainment Unit is confident and prepared to care for a second patient with Ebola, said Rosanna Morris, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer of The Nebraska Medical Center.
Morris and UNMC College of Public Health Dean Ali Khan, M.D., spoke to the press Friday afternoon about the med center’s preparations for the patient, who is scheduled to arrive in Omaha early this week.
The Nebraska Medical Center received word last week from the U.S. State Department that another patient with the Ebola virus would soon be transported to Omaha for treatment.
“We are ready, willing and able to care for this patient,” said Phil Smith, M.D., professor of internal medicine/infectios diseases at UNMC and medical director of the Biocontainment Unit. “This is the reason we built this unit in 2005, and we consider it our duty to give these American citizens the best possible care we can.”
Dr. Smith was one of the people who developed the idea for the unit, which was made possible through federal funding in the wake of 9/11.
This will be the second patient with the Ebola virus treated at The Nebraska Medical Center. The first was Richard Sacra, M.D., who was discharged from the Biocontainment Unit on Sept. 25. Dr. Sacra spent nearly three weeks in Omaha undergoing treatment after contracting the disease while treating patients in West Africa.
“We remained prepared after Dr. Sacra’s departure,” Morris said.
“The experience we have in treating Dr. Sacra should prove to be very valuable in treating this patient,” said Angela Hewlett, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine/infectios diseases at UNMC and associate medical director of the Biocontainment Unit. “We learned a lot about treatment methods the first time around and have been able to refine our operation processes in several ways.”
One of the major changes includes creating a lab inside the Biocontainment Unit itself so tests don’t have to be performed in labs elsewhere on campus.
Dr. Khan noted that the arrival of Ebola in the United States was a reminder of how quickly a global problem can become a local one.
“We need to make sure public health and global response is working (in west Africa),” he said.
Welcome Ashoka Mukpo. Keeping you and your family in our thoughts and prayers.