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No Valley links to KSU grad with Ebola, officials stress
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County Health Commissioner Patricia Sweeney said she is not aware of any Mahoning County contacts of the second Dallas health care worker diagnosed with Ebola, who visited family in Akron between Oct. 8 and Monday.
Sweeney said she has not been told by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that anyone on either leg of the Dallas-Cleveland airline round trip the worker took is a Mahoning Valley resident.
“We haven’t heard a single solitary word to that effect,” Sweeney said.
Meanwhile, the Ohio Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday night said at the request of Gov. John R. Kasich, Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director, agreed to send key CDC staff to Ohio to support the state and local Ebola response efforts.
An OEMA press release said a CDC agency liaison will help coordinate response efforts between Ohio and the CDC, and CDC contact-tracing experts will help state and local health officials identify anyone who may have had contact with the Dallas nurse who traveled to Ohio.
Sweeney said Dr. Mary DiOrio, state epidemiologist, told her that CDC or the Ohio Department of Health would contact her if anyone on either flight is connected to the Valley.
Stories of the dangerous virus’ connection to nearby Akron led several people to report to St. Elizabeth Health Center emergency rooms with symptoms similar to the flu — along with the fear they could have somehow come in contact with the Ebola virus.
A hospital spokeswoman said, however, that despite persistent rumors, there was no patient at the hospital with the virus.
“We have had a lot of people panicking thinking that they were exposed to Ebola,” said Maraline Kubik, a spokeswoman for St. Elizabeth.
People are urged to call the CDC at 1-800-232-4636 if they believe they have been exposed to Ebola.
Mahoning County has an all-hazards public health emergency preparedness policy, which includes infectious diseases, but it is not specific to Ebola, Sweeney said.
“You don’t plan for specific illnesses. You plan so that you can apply it to any different kind of emergency,” she explained.
The health board would activate the public health emergency response plan “when a situation becomes emergent and its health consequences have the potential to overwhelm routine community capabilities,” the written plan says.
If there would be a likely Ebola patient in the county, the county health department would set up a round-the-clock command center in its offices, and all of its epidemiologists, public health nurses and sanitarians would trace all contacts of that patient and quarantine them, Sweeney said.
“No matter what the hazard is, if it had anything to do with public health, we would open up a public health command center,” she said.
“There’d also be phone banks set up for people to call in who had questions,” she added.
The county emergency management agency would also activate the county’s emergency operations center on Industrial Road, where a health department liaison would be present, and the local hospitals would also have a command center, said Joe DiOrio, co mmunity health director at the Mahoning County Health Department.
All information would filter into the Industrial Road center, which would coordinate all needed resources, DiOrio added.
Law enforcement would also have a command center, Sweeney said.
“We believe that the hospitals here are prepared” to treat an Ebola patient, if necessary, Sweeney said.
St. Elizabeth Health Center and ValleyCare Northside Medical Center have the negative air pressure isolation rooms, which contain infectious diseases by letting air into those rooms but don’t send any of that air out to the remainder of the hospital, Sweeney said.
Dr. David M. Davis, city health department medical director, said individuals who think they have been exposed to Ebola should call their health care provider or local public health department for help and instructions.
“The earlier we can detect Ebola, the better it can be treated and kept from spreading, and the better the outcome for the individual,” Dr. Davis said.