KSU sends home 3 workers exposed to Ebola victim

October 16, 2014 at 12:01a.m.

Staff report

KENT

Three employees at Kent State University are related to the latest person diagnosed with Ebola, KSU officials said. University

officials, however, did not release any additional information at a press conference Wednesday afternoon about the employees who had contact with Amber Joy Vinson.

Vinson had treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died of the disease in a Dallas hospital last week.

Medical records provided to The Associated Press by Duncan’s family show Vinson was actively engaged in caring for Duncan and inserted catheters, drew blood and dealt with Duncan’s body fluids.

Eric Mansfield, KSU’s executive director of media relations; KSU President Beverly Warren; and Angela DeJulius, director of the university’s health services, all spoke at the Kent State press conference.

Mansfield said the university decided not to release the names of the three employees who had been in contact with Vinson.

He added the university did not want to disrespect the Vinson family or create more panic by releasing those names.

“We’re trying to deal with this in a calm manner,” Mansfield said. “The three employees related to the patient were sent home and will be self-monitored for 21 days.”

The student body was officially notified early Wednesday afternoon, he said.

He recommended that students’ parents call a special hotline the university set up at 330-346-4636 with any questions or concerns about the Ebola case.

When asked how long the Ebola virus can last in public, DeJulius said the virus could survive a few hours if in a fluid, but cannot survive on a dry surface. Because of that, she said she did not think it was necessary to deep clean the rooms of the employees who were in contact with the Ebola patient as they did not show symptoms of having the virus.

The World Health Organization, however, notes that those stricken with Ebola “remain infectious as long as their blood and body fluids, including semen and breast milk, contain the virus.” In fact, the WHO notes, “Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to seven weeks after recovery from illness.”

“It’s important to note that the patient was not on the Kent State campus,” Warren said. “She stayed with her family at their home in Summit County and did not step foot on our campus. We want to assure our university community that we are taking this information seriously, taking steps to communicate what we know.”

But Bob Burford, a university spokesman, told The Vindicator earlier Wednesday that the three people were “quarantined,” only adding to the cloud of confusion that has encircled the health care crisis since Duncan first arrived at a Dallas hospital Sept. 26.

Vinson, who was diagnosed with the disease in Texas on Tuesday night, flew to Cleveland last week and back to Texas on Monday. She did not show symptoms when she arrived in Cleveland or returned to Texas, KSU said in a news release.

“We’re coordinating with local public health authorities to ensure all precautions are taken,” DeJulius said.

Vinson is a 2006 Kent graduate, who then received a master’s degree in nursing in 2008 from the university.

Both the Ohio Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been in contact with the university.

CDC CONFERENCE

In Atlanta, Dr. Tom Frieden, the CDC director, in a telephone news conference Wednesday, said Vinson should not have traveled on a commercial airline after being exposed to the disease. Travel of those exposed to the disease is to be limited to “controlled movement” such as by car or charter flight, he said.

Vinson tested positive in a presumptive test for Ebola on Tuesday.

When she traveled on the first leg of her trip to Cleveland, however, the first health care worker, nurse Nina Pham, hadn’t been diagnosed with the disease, Dr. Frieden said.

From now on, the CDC plans to work with local and state authorities to ensure that travel of those exposed to the disease is limited to “controlled movement,” he said.

The CDC says Vinson flew on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Oct. 13, landing at 8:16 p.m. Dallas time.

Cleveland Department of Public Health and the city of Cleveland issued a statement saying that Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is “taking steps, above and beyond CDC guidance, to disinfect key areas of the airport.” Providing airport employees with personal protection equipment and disinfecting “key areas” of the airport are among the measures listed in the release.

The CDC is asking all 132 passengers who flew on that trip to call 1-800-232-4636. Likewise, state and local health officials are working to contact anyone who may have had contact with Vinson.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said Vinson was transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Dr. Frieden characterized Vinson’s condition as “ill but clinically stable.”

STATE NOTIFIED

Mary DiOrio, state epidemiologist and interim head of the Ohio Department of Health’s Division of Prevention and Health Promotion, told reporters the CDC notified the state the Texas woman was in the Akron area and returned to Dallas on Monday evening. She was diagnosed with the virus a day later.

DiOrio said the state is working with the Summit County Board of Health to identify anyone who may have had contact with her while she was in Ohio or on the flight back to Texas.

“As of right now, we do not have a case of Ebola in Ohio,” she said.

“This is our message to the general public,” DiOrio said: “The average Ohioan doesn’t need to be concerned about Ebola — only individuals who travel to and from West Africa where the Ebola outbreak is occurring or individuals in close contact with someone ill with Ebola.”

Health officials reiterated that Ebola is spread via contact with blood and bodily fluids of infected individuals. It can take up to three weeks for symptoms of infection to appear.

One Democratic state lawmaker continued to voice concern about the state’s preparedness to deal with an Ebola outbreak.

“I am deeply concerned that the new leadership at the Ohio Department of Health does not take the threat of an Ebola outbreak seriously enough,” Rep. Bob Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th, said in a statement. “It is imperative that Ohio has adequate protocols in place to treat any cases in our state and to prevent transmission of this deadly disease. Furthermore, ODH needs to effectively communicate these protocols to health providers, lawmakers and, most of all, the public.”

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, said: “ ... We must aggressively review the policies and procedures that allowed a health worker who was in contact with an Ebola patient to so easily leave and get on an airplane to potentially expose others. An immediate review must occur.”

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati, said, “The latest troubling news regarding the Ebola crisis demonstrates why our government must be more proactive in the fight to prevent the spread of Ebola. I have been calling on the president to take such proactive measures for weeks, and it’s time for the administration to act.”

On Twitter, he added: “A properly staffed Ebola hotline is needed. When a constituent called the CDC hotline today the wait was 108 mins. That’s unacceptable.”

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, said, “The CDC must dedicate immediate resources to organize monitoring services in Northeast Ohio. This includes close coordination with Ohio health officials and medical facilities, tracking and monitoring of Ohioans who may have been in contact with the patient, and the readying and potential deployment of infection experts to Ohio.”

Contributors: Reporters Denise Dick, Marc Kovac. Megan Wilkinson, Jordyn Grzelewski and Associated Press wire reports.