medical2Jamestown (CSi) Jamestown Regional Medical Center (JRMC) is following the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for dealing with a potential spread of the Ebola disease to the Jamestown area, and a patient showing symptoms of the disease that comes to the hospital for treatment.

JRMC is following the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for dealing with a potential spread of the disease to the Jamestown area.

A JRMC news release states that Ebola is only contagious when symptoms are present and those include a fever of 101.5 degrees or higher, headache, weakness, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and/or suspicious bruising or bleeding.

JRMC staff will only suspect Ebola if any of these symptoms are present and if the individual has traveled to an Ebola-affected country in West Africa in the past 21 days. Those countries include Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

The CDC asks people who believe they may have been exposed to the disease to contact his or her doctor to evaluate exposure level and the need for actions to be taken. If symptoms arise, people are asked to contact the medical facility prior to arrival to allow medical staff to take precautions.

The CDC advices, to reduce the possible spread of the disease, to habitually wash hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, and avoiding the body fluids of sick people or items that may have come in contact with the victim’s body fluids, including clothes, bedding, needles and other medical equipment.