As so much of the world is concerned with the outbreak and expansion of Ebola, the Times of Israel reported on Israel’s recent national exercise to prepare for a possible infection.
Of course, being a small county with one national emergency service and first responder service, the Magen David Adom’s emergency services role is pronounced to provide ongoing support, while sustaining the safety of the blood supply. Pray for all of the emergency services in Israel never to be caught short!
Officials are challenged to identify travelers suspected of carrying deadly disease; the Prime Minister ordered increased measures against any possibility of an outbreak. Israeli officials conducted an Ebola identification training exercise at the Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv.
Officials and employees from the Population Immigration and Border Authority, airlines, the Magen David Adom emergency medical services, the Health Ministry and the police participated in the drill, aimed at identifying travelers who could potentially have contracted the virulent disease.
As part of the exercise, officials were challenged to identify potential patients when they positively answer routine questions about their health and travel. All three of the “patients” were indeed picked out in the procedures.
As part of the drill, officials administered first aid and evacuated anybody potentially arriving from a target country and with a high temperature to the Sheba Medical Center, near Tel Aviv, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
A meeting of top Health Ministry officials decided this week that should any Ebola cases be detected in Israel, they will be quarantined and treated either at Sheba or at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a conference call Thursday to review the exercise procedures with Health Minister, Yael German; Health Ministry director, Prof. Arnon Afek; and director general of Ben Gurion Airport, Shmuel Zakai.
Netanyahu ordered increased preparations at all points of entry into the country, including taking the temperature of travelers arriving from affected areas in West Africa.
The move came after several people outside of West Africa, where the disease has claimed thousands of victims in the past several months, have become infected with the disease.
Two American health-care workers at a Dallas, Texas, hospital have been diagnosed with Ebola after caring for a Liberian man who died of the disease last week. US President Barack Obama’s administration has shifted into overdrive in efforts to contain the spread of the disease, instituting increased measures at several major US airports aimed at identifying potentially infected travelers.
A nurse in Spain last week became the first person known to catch Ebola outside the outbreak zone in West Africa. She had been part of a team that treated two missionaries flown home to Spain after becoming infected with Ebola in West Africa. The nurse’s only symptom was a fever, but the infection was confirmed by two tests, Spanish health officials said. She was being treated in isolation, while authorities drew up a list of people she had had contact with.
The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday that Israel will open two emergency clinics in Liberia and Sierre Leone and send an aid team to operate the clinics and train local personnel.
“The international community and Israel in particular have the tools and know-how to help communities affected by Ebola,” Prosor added. “Together, we can overcome this crisis.”
Let us all live in Psalm 91 King James Version (KJV)
1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
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