Senators Are Told That Hamilton County Can Deal With An Ebola case

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WDEF-TV) – The tragic ebola epidemic in west Africa is far from over.
And despite all the precautions, there’s the likelihood that other cases could turn up in this country.
Tennessee’s two U.S. Senators are traveling the state asking the question—what would your community do if an infected person is found?

Ebola is a disease that can wipe out and entire country.
And the medical community in America is struggling to make sure it doesn’t get a foothold here.
Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker got reassurance from Hamilton county health care providers and political leaders that the threat is taken very seriously here..and that plans are in place to deal with it should a patient turn up.
Memorial and Erlanger hospitals and the county health department all had top officials at the roundtable.
Sen. Alexander is the top republican of the health committee.

SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER, (R) TENNESSEE "The centers for disease control says there may be a million and a half people infected by January. If we don’t control it, it doubles every 3 weeks. That’s dangerous to our country, both because an infected person might come here, and secondly because if we allow countries to be devastated in Africa that creates havens for terrorists."

Senator Corker is the highest ranking republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.

SEN.BOB CORKER, (R) TENNESSEE "There’s no question that additional funding will be necessary to deal with the effort there. I think all Tennesseans and Americans do want it dealt with in western Africa..so the best way yo do that it to really ramp up our efforts there."

Memorial hospital’s infectious disease specialist is Dr.Mark Anderson.

DR.MARK ANDERSON, MEMORIAL, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST "We have these..four of them in the United States that are prepared to deal with the most infectious and dangerous pathogens ..and staffed by people who are trained to do that."

Sen. Alexander this week announced legislation to encourage the development of effective ebola treatments.

Senator Alexander said he thinks the nation would have better off if someone like General Colin Powell, or former Senator, Doctor Bill Frist had been named by the white house as Ebola Czar.
He says President Obama’s political appointee has not been effective.