Nelson on Ebola fight: Stop issuing visas

Local doctors feel confident in ability to respond to Ebola

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – U.S. Sen Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said Thursday he's fighting to stop visas from being issued to the U.S. from countries affected by Ebola.

Nelson said stopping travel from those areas will help prevent the Ebola epidemic from spreading in the U.S.

Nelson said it's a matter of national security, and something needs to be done.

"Americans are quite on edge because they're afraid Ebola is going to turn into an epidemic," Nelson said.

He said he wants to limit international travel from Ebola-inflicted areas like Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Nelson said he believes the screenings at five international airports -- New York's JFK, Washington-Dulles, Newark, Chicago's O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta -- are a good idea, but he believes that's not enough.

"I find that as a senator from now the third-largest state, that's important for me to speak out when I think there's something additional that should be done," Nelson said.

The World Health Organization said the death rate from the current Ebola outbreak is now 70 percent.

"Americans' fears are not going to subside until they see the problem starting to be controlled," Nelson said.

At St. Vincent's Medical Center Southside, nurses and medical staff have been conducting drills and training staff on how to properly put on and take off medical gear.

They have two isolation rooms and say they can change other rooms into isolation rooms.

Nelson said he's going to continue this fight, but he doesn't know if others will support his efforts. He didn't give a time frame on how long he thinks those visas should stop being issued.

In the meantime, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday in a news conference that it's time to re-think how the country addresses infection control by creating an Ebola response team.

It's one of many steps the CDC is taking to improve safety in handling Ebola and help hospitals better prepare for the disease, CDC director Thomas Friedan said.

"Starting today, any hospital, anywhere in the US, if they have a confirmed case of Ebola, we will send a team to the ground to be with them for every aspect of their care, from infection control to treatment, to environmental, to decontamination to waste management, to training of staff," Friedan said.

Local doctors said Tuesday that they embrace the idea of having a "site manager" in place who will serve as the point person on Ebola cases.

They said it will not only streamline the process at hospitals but could ultimately save lives.

"We'll be able to get more, tighter security on this," said Dr. Harold Laski of Southside Medical Center. "We'll be able to get more ability to transport. So each of these things will come."

At St. Vincent's Riverside, nurses and other medical staff said they feel confident in their ability to respond efficiently and rapidly should an Ebola patient reach their doors.

"We've actually been working on an Ebola action plan since August of this year," said Gail Green, chief nursing officer at St. Vincent's Medical Center. "At that juncture our control practitioners did extensive education in our emergency department where we anticipate the first screening."

With the national dialogue growing, local doctors remain confident the rapid response planning will not only stop Ebola's spread but the country's fears as well.

"Rather than be running scared, we know what to do," Laski said. "And a point person is always good in any kind of situation like this."

Another big announcement Tuesday came from Memorial Hospital. Its parent company, Hospital Corporation of America, has donated $1 million to the CDC to help in its Ebola response efforts.

Also, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife announced Tuesday they are donating $25 million to the CDC foundation to fight the Ebola crisis that has killed more than 4,440 people in west Africa.