(Adds exercise details)
A national Ebola drill is being held tomorrow to test health authorities’ response to a person falling ill with the deadly virus, Times of Malta has learnt.
Fifteen healthcare workers, civil protection rescuers and police will join forces in the National Ebola Simulation Exercise and move out of Mater Dei Hospital to Triq Santu r-Rokku in Mosta at around 10am.
A woman would have called the hospital earlier recounting her symptoms and saying she was in an affected country.
The patient will be taken to hospital in an isolator. The staff taking part in the exercise.
“As with any plan, the more you test and train, the more you can identify issues when they arise. This will be a learning curve for all,” a health department spokesman said.
This drill follows a number of others that have been held over the past few months in various areas to test the response should a case of Ebola present itself.
It will involve picking up a patient under strict infection control, followed by a meticulous process of decontamination and controlling onlookers, before rushing the ‘patient’ to Mater Dei. Health authorities are urging everybody to cooperate.
The more you test and train, the more you can identify issues when they arise. This will be a learning curve for all
A total of 13,567 cases of Ebola have been reported in six countries – Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Spain, and the US – and two previously affected countries Nigeria and Senegal, up to the end of October.
There have been 4,951 reported deaths.
Malta has focused its preparedness on the key concepts of early detection, isolation and identification of contacts to minimise the spread of illness.
The focus is on points of entry where enhanced screening is being carried out at airports and ports.
“We are also ensuring that response procedures to assessment of suspected cases and transfer of cases to hospital are according to strict infection control procedures,” the spokesman said.
Mater Dei is fully capable of handling a case of Ebola on the island, with an adequate isolation facility.