Prince William Medical Center to serve as Ebola treatment center

 

A hospital just outside Manassas will play a critical role in the event someone in our area contracts Ebola.

Designated as an Ebola treatment hub is Prince William Medical Center by the company that owns it and other hospitals in North Carolina, as well as the Haymarket Medical Center here in Virginia: Novant.

“We want to bring additional comfort to our communities who have expressed concern than an isolated room is not as safe as an isolated dedicated unit,” said Tom Zweng, MD, chief medical officer for Novant Health. “Our current protocols are safe and follow CDC recommendations; however, we wanted to take extra caution should the need arise.”

Prince William Medical Center will also accept Ebola patients from other area hospitals that are not equipped to treat the disease. So far, no area resident has contracted the deadly virus.

But Thomas Duncan, a man who passed through Dulles International Airport on his way from Liberia, Africa to Dallas late last month, became the first person in the U.S. to die from Ebola. Since the two other nurses who treated Duncan inside a Dallas hospital have fallen ill from Ebola.

Three Virginia politicians are now urging Gov. Terry McAuliffe to urge the Federal Government to place a ban on travel from west African nations to the U.S.

Manassas Delegate Bob Marshall, Frederick County Delegate Mark Berg, and Virginia Senator Dick Black all signed a three-page letter to the governor that outlined their case for a travel ban. The letter states that African countries Senegal and Nigeria banned travel to and from affected Ebola countries, and since then has seen the rate of infection drop.

“The most preventive method is: don’t expose Americans to it,” said Del. Bob Marshall.

But some have opposed banning such travel from the U.S. due to the negative economic impact it could have on already poor west African nations. Marshall says Dulles Airport is the second most used gateway to the U.S. for travel between here and Africa. John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International is third.

“Dead people don’t buy anything,” said Marshall on the prospect of negative economic impacts.

The Delegate was clear to point out that medical teams should still be allowed to charter flights to west African nations to send help to treat the virus.

Back at the hospital, this the latest new piece of Ebola-related announcement from the healthcare organization. Officials there are calling this a “centralized” approach that will allow the company to focus its training and resources into a handful of centers rather than having all of their hospitals equally equipped to treat patients who have contracted the virus.