BLOOMINGTON — A Bloomington doctor and Flanagan native recently returned to Central Illinois after having a role in responding to one of the larger infectious disease outbreaks in history.
Dr. Thomas Sutter, an occupational medicine physician with Advocate Medical Group at Advocate BroMenn Outpatient Center in Bloomington, spent six months at World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, as an occupational health and safety specialist responding to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
"I was a consultant who was a part of a team," Sutter said last week in his office, downplaying his role.
But he values being a part of that team.
"I'm a farm boy from Flanagan and I was working at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva," he said. "That's pretty neat."
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"Advocate Occupational Health is honored to have Dr. Sutter as an occupational health physician in our practice," said Karen Moore Naliwajko, vice president of operations with Advocate Medical Group. "It's rewarding to work with a physician who is willing to devote his time to helping areas that are in great need."
Sutter, 64, was with Carle Clinic in Urbana for 24 years before joining Advocate Medical Group three years ago. As an occupational medicine physician, he cares for injured workers and performs other employee health duties.
Sutter, who also has a master's degree in public health, is interested specifically in the health of people who care for the sick.
A couple of years ago, he and his wife, Debra, became empty nesters when their youngest child went to college and they began searching for fulfilling ways to spend their time.
His wife entered seminary and became a part-time minister in Champaign.
Then Sutter got a call late last year asking whether he wanted to join a WHO team dealing with infections among health care workers responding to the Ebola crisis in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
"A lot of doctors and nurses became ill during the Ebola epidemic," Sutter said. "My interest is in protecting public health workers in a crisis. That's what we would be doing. I felt that I was called to do this."
Ebola is a viral illness of which the initial symptoms include sudden fever, intense weakness, muscle pain and sore throat, according to WHO. Subsequent stages include vomiting, diarrhea and — in some cases — internal and external bleeding. The disease infects humans through close contact with infected animals, WHO said. The disease then spreads between humans by direct contact with infected blood, bodily fluids or organs or through contact with contaminated items.
Ebola was discovered in central Africa in 1976. The 2014 outbreak started in Guinea in West Africa and quickly spread to urban areas and the neighboring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone. A small number of cases were confirmed in Nigeria.
As of late July 2015, nearly 28,000 people had been infected with Ebola and 11,284 of them died.
Ebola spread quickly in West Africa, where hugging is a normal part of religious worship and where ritual preparation of bodies for burial involves washing, touching and kissing. So some people who handled bodies of the dead got the disease.
Public health workers emphasized the importance of avoiding direct physical contact with anyone with Ebola, their bodily fluids and shared towels and discussed hand washing and improved hygiene. But health workers caring for the sick were among those who got Ebola and died. About 815 health workers had Ebola by March 31, 2015, with another 225 suspected cases, WHO said.
That's why WHO organized the team — to address infections among health workers.
Sutter was in Geneva from January through June 30. "Each morning, we would meet in the situation room to go over the Ebola situation," he said. They also kept in contact with health workers in West Africa.
"As a team, we worked to control the epidemic," he said.
The team's work culminated in a WHO report released several weeks ago.
The report concluded that there were gaps in implementing infection prevention and control standards and that's how health workers were infected. Among gaps were inadequate control of Ebola patient and health care worker movement within health facilities; lack of infection prevention and control standard operating procedures and specialists; lack of equipment and training; inadequate isolation; poor hygiene and contaminated surfaces; inconsistent use of personal protective equipment by health workers; and staff shortages.
WHO developed guidance on infection prevention and control standards for care of Ebola patients, including implementing triage and isolation areas and protocols and consistently using good personal protective equipment and hand hygiene. The organization set up courses for environmental health officers.
"One lesson learned from the Ebola epidemic is that health worker protection is key to the capability of health systems to respond to health emergencies and meet routine healthcare needs," the report concluded.
Improved strategies and supplies resulted in a decline in health worker infections earlier this year. That combined with an influx of volunteers who worked with families and urged them to make changes in their daily lives resulted in the outbreak abating. During the last full week in July, seven new cases were confirmed, WHO said.
Two weeks ago, WHO said a new vaccine to fight Ebola looks promising in preliminary reports. There had been no vaccine against Ebola but the new vaccine was 100 percent effective in the clinical trial.
"It's important for all countries to have strong health care systems so that if something like this happens, there are systems in place," Sutter said.
"The team made progress. I had a small contribution to protecting health care workers in West Africa," Sutter said. "But I brought home more than I gave."