Anchorage’s Providence Alaska Medical Center has become the first hospital in the state to demonstrate it can take care of a patient infected with the Ebola virus.
On Tuesday, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services presented the hospital with a certification labeling Providence an “Ebola Assessment Hospital.” The certification declares that the hospital is capable of receiving, isolating and diagnosing an Ebola patient for up to 96 hours. After that period, the patient — if alive — would be transferred to a specialty hospital in the Lower 48.
Ebola, a virulent hemorrhagic fever, is extraordinarily deadly. A 2014 outbreak in West Africa was the largest in history and killed 11,325 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two-fifths of infected people died.
“Although the risk of Ebola in Alaska is extremely low, it is critical that we have health care facilities that can identify and care for patients suspected of being exposed to Ebola or other important infectious diseases,” said Dr. Jay Butler, the state’s chief medical officer, in a prepared statement.
