Today, we were pleased to have John Resta, Director of the USAPHC’s Army Institute of Public Health and Robert Cohen, MD, MPH, Preventive Medicine Physician, Disease Epidemiology Program, Army Institute of Public Health, at APG, present their investigation into, and the in-county support they provide, to fight this deadly disease.
This photo points out the BIG difference with EBOLA – most viruses are round-shape; Ebola is filament shaped. The body tends to an mount an un-welcomed, over-response to this shape/condition.
Dr. Cohen, an excellent presenter, not only gave an in-depth view of the facts, the hypothesis and concerns surrounding this world concern (it’s also in the Philippines as well as west Africa) but shared much information and anecdotes not on this power point. The large audience benefited form his insights, and were glad/relieved to listen first-hand.
His presentation is downloadable here: 
Ebola-Presentation-to-NMTC-by-US-Army-Medical-Health-Command-14-12-11.pdf
The second phase of the presentation covered the University of Maryland, Upper Chesapeake Heatlhcare excellent planning and preparation for receiving an Ebola patient, no matter how they enter their hospitals (North Harford included). Presenting were Gary Hicks, Amy Myers and Colleen Clay, who all three share presenting:
Training – 230 employees for weeks, as starters. Each employee donning and doffing the encapsulating protective suits and hood, many times over (20 minutes each phase)
Tools for Screening – the questions, observations and knowledge to support both
Tools for patient care – laboratory guidelines for transporting infected blood for analysis through the hallways, infectious waste disposal, and surprisingly, the purchase of music load speakers so all can hear when wearing the noise-muffling protective hoods. Lastly, anyone donning a protective suit, 4 are involved; the caregiver, a person dressing the caregiver, the person reading/checking instructions to both and an oversight person assuring all is correct…and that is before a patient can be seen.
We left confident that Upper Chesapeake is well-prepared. They now practice drills and re-train employees, weekly.
