Brandon Twp.- Elizabeth McGhee traveled to west Africa just two months ago and even amidst an Ebola outbreak in the region, would return to help combat the disease if invited.
The virus, also known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, has infected more than 10,000 people in Africa in the latest outbreak, killing nearly half, and cases have now been reported in multiple countries around the world, including four in the United States (resulting in one death) as of Wednesday, causing widespread fear and quarantining of medical workers.
McGhee, a township resident, is more concerned she might die in a car crash after seeing a sign along I-75 this week that stated more than 700 people in Michigan have been killed in traffic accidents this year.
‘Seven hundred and fifty-five people died in traffic accidents in 2014 and one died of Ebola. Maybe I shouldn’t be driving,? she said. ‘Is there gonna be an outbreak here? Maybe… The 50 percent mortality in Africa is high because they don’t have care and sanitation in place. It’s not going to run rampant and come and kill a bunch of Americans, we don’t reuse needles, we have sanitation, we have supportive care.?
McGhee is familiar with the many challenges faced in Africa. She has traveled to the continent at least once a year, visiting various countries including Uganda and Kenya for the past 15 years on medical missions. Most recently, she traveled to Senegal and Mauritania to scout the safety of those countries for future missions. In February 2013, McGhee was in Uganda during an outbreak of the Marburg virus, which, like Ebola, is in the Filoviridae virus family, and is believed to possibly originate from fruit bats and monkeys.
McGhee is frustrated because while the Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976 and several outbreaks have occurred in Africa in that time, drug companies haven’t aggressively pursued vaccines for the disease.
‘There are people who have money in Africa, but for the village of people who live in mud huts and dig out latrines, don’t file birth or death certificates, and Ebola goes through and they don’t have sanitation in place? it’s ‘oh, well,?? she said. ‘When I first went to Africa, everyone had migrating worms, and I said, ‘Why don’t we give to humans what we give to dogs (for heartworms)?? The drug company markets it for animals, but they said there is no market for the humans, because it’s expensive and those who need it don’t have money.?
McGhee describes the doctors in Africa as very intelligent, but many leave the country once they have finished their education, because they make so little money. The hospitals lack supplies and medicine, and some villages lack any kind of medical facility. She has been to a missionary clinic in the middle of the Congo in which beds were lined up with patients one after the other and needles were reused. Multiple diseases often have the same signs? headaches and fevers, and nearly always, patients are treated for malaria, because there is no laboratory to give a proper diagnosis.
‘By the time you figure it’s Ebola, a lot of people have died, because there’s no supportive treatment,? she said. ‘Their burial system is crazy? they don’t embalm. If they are in the hospital and die, they are put in a cooler, on shelves, and the family picks them up and wraps them in a blanket or put in a box and they take them home and bury. A lot of these people get infected along the way.?
McGhee doesn’t believe she has ever seen a case of Ebola. If she did, she wasn’t aware that’s what it was. But in addition to deworming humans, the veterinarian’s medical work in Africa has included treating many cases of malaria, brucellosis, anemia, and leprosy.
George Miller, director for the department of health and human services for Oakland County, said the arrival of Ebola in this country is not surprising, since it is only about 13 hours by plane to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the West African countries ravaged by the disease.
‘It’s a communicable disease that has unfortunately come into existence in the U.S., but we can effectly treat, investigate and monitor it, and right now we are demonstrating that is what is occurring,? he said.
Miller noted that the one U.S. death from Ebola was the initial patient who traveled from Liberia and was in the later stages of the disease. When found early, such as in the nurses who cared for the Liberian man, the disease is treatable. Both women made a full recovery. A fourth patient, a New York man who traveled to Africa with Doctors Without Borders to help combat the disease, is currently being treated.
While the virus is communicable, it’s not airborne like the flu. Instead, it is spread by the body fluids of someone displaying symptoms, making it more difficult to contract.
Still, the Oakland County Health Division is using the current outbreak as an opportunity to review protocols and train staff even though the department has been practicing and preparing for disasters like this since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Miller said county hospitals are making sure they have the proper equipment and training for medical employees? including doffing and donning of impermeable suits, booties and face shields (which have been elevated from the basic surgical masks). The Centers for Disease Control recommends another person watches the process of putting on and taking off the equipment used when working with Ebola patients to ensure safety.
The OCHD has not received a lot of public inquiries about Ebola, but Miller said health officials have met with various police jurisdictions including the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, to discuss concerns they have relative to the virus, as well as local firefighters and EMS.
‘It’s all relative? 33,000 people die annually of flu on average in this country,? said Miller. ‘Nine million people across the globe had tuberculosis in 2013 and more than 1 million died… I think we are always humanitarian in this country? if there are people who think they can make a difference and save lives, I hope there will always be a drive in people to want to do those kinds of things.?
Like McGhee, Matt Yettaw is one of those who wants to make a difference and save lives.
The 2011 Brandon High School graduate traveled to Sierra Leone in the summer of 2012 to work at a community hospital for a month, observing surgeries and working in a therapeutic feeding center for malnourished children. Ebola wasn’t on the radar at a significant level then. The hospital in which Yettaw worked was considered one of the best in the country, privately run, with many expatriates working there. While conditions were good, there was a limited amount of morphine and doctors used horse tranquilizers to put patients under, and used Tylenol as a painkiller after surgery. Now, two of the medical staff at the hospital where he was stationed have died from Ebola. Many western physicians have left the stricken nation.
Yettaw assumes the medical workers who remain are taking measures recommended by the World Health Organization? full body coverage when they can get the supplies, and proper procedures regarding cleanliness. When he was there, medical workers had to reuse facial masks. Now he can only imagine they are running out of those.
Yettaw is upset about decisions made in New York and New Jersey to quarantine people who are returning from medical missions to west Africa, contrary to recommendations from the WHO and CDC.
‘It comes down to science,? he said. ‘When they tell you American quarantines are not going to help and we do it anyway? it’s for political reasons, not for public health reasons… Quarantining nurses that are showing no symptoms disincentivizes people to help others.?
Instead, those who are risking their own lives to save lives should be treated as heroes, like soldiers are, Yettaw said. Ebola, he adds, should not be treated with hysteria, particularly here.
‘We have a serious problem how we talk about American values and how we act on them,? said the Alma College senior, political science major. ‘We talk about being the standard for democracy, yet we don’t help the less fortunate outside of our borders.?
McGhee first went to Africa out of a desire to visit a new place and meet new people, but she came away changed, blessed by an experience that helped her grow and evolve. The people of Africa are very happy in spite of poverty and disease, she said. They love their children, they love their families, and they show an amazing amount of gratitude. Happy to be dewormed, even if for just a month. Happy that a physician took the time to see them, even if the workers ran out of medicine to give.
‘When I go there, all the things that press on me here fade away,? said McGhee. ‘People don’t care how much you know until they see how much you care… What can we do as a country? That’s the eternal question of all mankind? what do we do? If we want to help healthwise, clean water is number one. There are organizations you can send money to help… Fate is the hunter. It could easily have been us over there and them over here. We could have been born there on a dirt floor. If you were that person in the village with nothing, what would you expect from people like us? Just because of fate, we are where we are, but we have a choice to do what we can. Maybe you can’t go to Africa, but what are you doing right here to show that you care??