Special COVID treatment facility opens in PB

Poplar Bluff community partners received an early look Friday at the second Southeast Missouri temporary location to infuse diagnosed COVID-19 sufferers with monoclonal antibodies. The effort is in an attempt to try to keep them out of hospitals.

The local facility at Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center’s Westwood Campus will be operational Saturday.

PBRMC’s CEO Rick Naegler and Butler County EMA Director Robbie Myers welcomed the group and answered questions.

Myers said, having the sites in the area is due to the fact “Southeast Missouri works well together as a region to get things done. That goes back to why we were chosen for the first vaccine site with the National Guard.

“As a region as a whole, we all work together to accomplish things. The spirit of regional cooperation serves us well.”

Naegler called the program “phenomenal,” adding it matches the hospital’s purpose of “caring for the community.” The medical center’s role is made easier by its “highly professional staff,” he said.

Myers said, “the treatment is good for COVID patients, who are at high risk. They need to get in here. They should talk to their health care provider about helping them participate.”

Myers explained the local center can treat 20 patients a day.

Describing MAB as the “least controversial” treatment,” Myers said, anyone who already has been diagnosed with COVID in the past 10 days, or will in the next few weeks, this resource is something available to them.

Individuals should talk to their provider about the treatment. Patients that can be transfused quickly have less severe outcomes and may avoid hospitalization.

The effort uses antibodies from people who have had COVID and survived. The recipient’s immune system will then mount a response to the infusion.

Butler County Health Department Administrator Emily Goodin said, “I am excited the Department of Health and Senior Services (along with other entities – health departments, FQHCs, hospitals in Region E) chose Poplar Bluff to be an infusion site. This will be great not only for our county, but for surrounding counties as well.”

While Butler County residents’ vaccination rate is 24.9%, Goodin stressed, “the health department is working diligently on increasing the rate by offering vaccination clinics from 8-4 p.m. every Friday and from 5-7 p.m. every first Tuesday of the month and several off-site clinics by request.”

Attending with Goodin was health department board chairman Mary Ann Allen.

Others attending were Paula F. Nickelson of Jefferson City, administrator of the Office Of Emergency Coordination Division Of Community And Public Health Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, District 152 Rep. Hardy Billington of Poplar Bluff, Poplar Bluff City Manager Matt Winters, Poplar Bluff Fire Chief and City EMA director Mike Moffitt and Carter County EMA Director Curt Majors of Van Buren. Marcus Selvidge, PBRMC nurse leader chief quality officer, was available to assist with questions.

The state has awarded the contract to SLS corporation based out of Galveston, Texas, Myers said.

According to Gov. Mike Parson, the state will commit $15 million of federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act money to fund all the MAB sites across Missouri.