PORT-OF-SPAIN – Trinidad and Tobago is still not ready for an Ebola outbreak.
Dr Varma Deyalsingh said the health sector’s state of readiness against the deadly virus could be gauged by asking any random patient in the emergency department of any hospital how long they had to wait for treatment.
Deyalsingh contended that an Ebola patient has to get up to 20 units of blood per day to save his life, “and we can’t even get two units of blood to do normal procedures that we have planned, such as elective surgery, much less cope with an influx of Ebola patients.
“We have to look at our Carnival, the celebrations; crowds present ideal conditions for Ebola to spread. The virus is just a plane ride away from reaching T&T, one person can come here and destroy the whole if he is a viral bomb.”
Deyalsingh said there was a consensus among doctors, and the majority of them have said that Carnival should be postponed. However, he stressed that while there was public education on Ebola, the Government was sending mixed messages—don’t stop the Carnival on one hand and warning about the dangers of Ebola on the other.
Deyalsingh, treasurer of the country’s Medical Board said while the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex 12-bed capacity and Caura Hospital’s 48-bed capacity announced by Health Minister Fuad Khan to quarantine people with Ebola was a good start, it was not enough. (GE/Trinidad Guardian)
