University of Arkansas Fayetteville - Razorback Yearbook (Fayetteville, AR)

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ebola SCARE STORY: DARCY BOULTINGHOUSE PHOTO: CDC DESIGN: HANNAH MOLL The outbreak of the deadly ebola virus had many A students concerned for their safety, especially a ter two nurses who cared for the first ebola patient in the United States, Thomas Duncan, acquired the disease themselves. It makes you really wonder what the CDC ls oing for our nurses and other health care professi onals to stop the spread, senior nursing student Shayla Hadley said. It ' s really scary, because e nurse s at Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas were not prepared to know how to deal with it, yet ey were immediately blamed for getting sick due ° a breach in protocol. Until then, it ' s just going to e ep spreading until the CDC supplies our nurses i 1 the information and equipment necessary to ee p themselves safe. The ebola virus was spread through direct contact Wl an infected individual ' s bodily fluids, as well as ° n f am ' na1:e d objects, such as needles and linens. t e time, there were five known strains of the isease, one of which was discovered in the United states in 1989. State Sre WaS 80 e ° ' a out break in the United w th eS k r ' ° r ° ° ne we are ex P er ' enc n 9 now, inf 6 ' erence being that no humans were w ec ec h clinical instructor Jeremy Devers said. It as discovered in a research lab in Reston, Virginia anH 0 ' n ecte d monkey arrived at the laboratory estroyed all of the primates kept there. rec 8Vers ex plained that, although the incident rec 6 rnuc 1 ess me dia coverage than the more ent outbreak, the public reacted similarly in both There was massive fear, Devers said. At the time they thought it was airborne, but it was discovered later that it still spread by point-to-point contact. Not a single lab worker was infected, but they tested everyone and kept the lab workers on isolation for weeks and weeks after the discovery, and everyone was terrified. Although the first ebola outbreak was contained without any human infection, Hadley explained that she was particularly fearful of the disease ' s second presence in the United States. When I heard the news, I was in the parking lot of Wal-Mart, Hadley said. I had checked the news on my phone and then refused to get out of my car. People laugh, but I wasn ' t about to take any chances until I learned more about the disease, and especially not until our own health care workers were educated on how to handle it. In the meantime, Hadley encouraged health care workers, including students, to remain cautious when working with patients, a trait she practiced during her own clinical rotations. Until we have a better grasp on how to handle the virus, we need to know how to use our personal protective equipment, Hadley said. Personal protective equipment is the gloves, gowns and eyewear healthcare workers wear when anticipating contact with isolated individuals in the hospital setting. The best thing you can do is do to protect yourself against ebola, or any infectious disease, is to do your research and educate yourself about the facts of the disease, Hadley said. EBOLA SCARE 21