27 February 2020
Buckets on the Table: Big Brothers, Big Sisters
Speaker of the Day: Cheryl Lietchty, MD PhD – Coronavirus
Dr. Lietchy moved to the Midcoast area 15 years ago and enjoys the challenges of having the opportunity of doing a little bit of everything! Her specialty is infectious disease medicine, epidemiology and public health. In regards to the Corona virus, things are moving and changing very quickly. Viruses are smaller and much simpler than bacteria but are much harder to treat. There are 7 Corona viruses that cause human infection; four cause the common cold and three cause human disease. SARS-CoV, with a 10% morbidity rate (bats to civits to human) considered zoonotic infections (those infectious diseases that spread from non-human animals to humans) - 8000 cases identified and the virus died out, never went too far. MERS-CoV with a 35% morbidity rate (bats to camels to humans), a small outbreak with only small outbreaks since then) and nCoV-19, (bats to live animals to humans) with a 2% morbidity rate.
This moved very fast thru china and was reported to the Chinese CDC as severe pneumonia. January 6, US media reported this issue and January 8 the virus was identified. By MLK weekend, 15 cases were identified in US. Average transmission is to 3 people (measles is 12-15 people)
Host factors: Increased age is an issue, kids don’t get as sick from this, and smokers are at higher risk for complication. WHO and Federal CDC are communicating regularly as cases are identified. We are all working to prepare for the US experience, as it is the case of ‘It’s not if, but when’.
Healthcare facilities are preparing, planning and anticipating bed space, inventories of protective equipment for healthcare workers, travel screening, infection control measures, communication, communication, communication.
A good resource of information is the online source of the Federal CDC website for the corona virus. Masking or not: yes - Sick people should be wearing masks and healthcare workers working close to patients.
Call your clinicians instead of show up!! They will advise you as to steps that need to be taken!
Committee Reports:
John Johansson has resigned from club
Several more thank you from organizations receiving gifts!
District governor chose us as a model club and we have a 10 minute presentation at the meeting
Yard sale: Lisa – June 13 at MRC, start thinking about what you want to collect for the event!
March 21 habitat project
Next Week’s Speaker: Stephanie Primm, Knox County Homeless Coalition