Their deaths in Masindi Port, in central Uganda, bring the total of those who have died of Ebola in Uganda since the disease broke out in mid-October to 110. His death was followed by three others in the same town. Someone hit a nurse. One woman abruptly pinches another patient's face and yells curses. Another breaks into loud, gasping sobs for no apparent reason.
Agitation keeps still others awake all night.
A geriatric psychiatrist employed to care regularly for nursing home residents like these because he is specially trained in treatments to calm, even prevent, such problems. Nursing homes were set up to treat chronic physical problems, not the explosion of Alzheimer's, other dementias, and depression accompanying the nation's booming elderly population. Typically, nursing home doctors are primary care physicians with little mental-health training who often don't know about new treatments that help such patients without sedating them into zombies. Many homes will seek special psychiatric consultations for a very ill patient, but that can take weeks. Maybe you should consider some dietary downsizing.