GUEST SPEAKER - MARK HANDBY
Svet Lineham introduced Mark Handby. Mark is an Environmental Health Officer and has worked for the Warrnambool City Council for almost 7 years. Prior to that he worked with the Victorian Department of Health, assisting with the management of infectious disease outbreaks, as well he has worked in remote communities in the Northern Territory.
With a keen interest in emergency public health he is a member of the Environmental Health Professional Emergency Management Group and assisted with the Black Saturday Bushfire, as well as recently spending two months in Sierra Leone with the ebola response.
His power presentation was titled Ebola Response. Ebola has been rife in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia on the west coast of Africa. It has affected 6 million people, mostly children. It is spread by wild animals. Symptoms are flu like and cause a rash. The incubation period is 2 – 21 days. We were shown photos of a 20 bed centre at Kerry Town, which he said was a high tech facility, and an 80 bed centre, which had been closed because it was not up to standard. There are red areas and green areas. Red areas were where patients stay and cannot leave. Green areas were where scrubs, gum boots, etc were stored and medical people prepared to cover every part of their bodies before entering a red area. Chlorine was sprayed onto everything. There were 7 steps to washing hands. And hands needed to be washed 100+ of times a day. On the screen we could see how they were dressed, so hot and difficult to move around. It must be so difficult to work under such conditions.
With a keen interest in emergency public health he is a member of the Environmental Health Professional Emergency Management Group and assisted with the Black Saturday Bushfire, as well as recently spending two months in Sierra Leone with the ebola response.
His power presentation was titled Ebola Response. Ebola has been rife in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia on the west coast of Africa. It has affected 6 million people, mostly children. It is spread by wild animals. Symptoms are flu like and cause a rash. The incubation period is 2 – 21 days. We were shown photos of a 20 bed centre at Kerry Town, which he said was a high tech facility, and an 80 bed centre, which had been closed because it was not up to standard. There are red areas and green areas. Red areas were where patients stay and cannot leave. Green areas were where scrubs, gum boots, etc were stored and medical people prepared to cover every part of their bodies before entering a red area. Chlorine was sprayed onto everything. There were 7 steps to washing hands. And hands needed to be washed 100+ of times a day. On the screen we could see how they were dressed, so hot and difficult to move around. It must be so difficult to work under such conditions.