Even with headlines, Ebola outbreak in U.S. unlikely, UNR expert says

An expert on Ebola told a Nevada panel of public health officials Wednesday that the virus has virtually no chance of becoming a health care crisis in the United States despite the number of headlines the pathogen is grabbing across the country.

“It’s important to separate the effect Hollywood has on our culture with reality,” James Wilson of the University of Nevada, Reno School of Community Health Sciences told the state Ebola Advisory Task Force in Las Vegas.

Ebola misconceptions, including among some physicians, continue to stoke fears that the virus poses more of a threat to public health, said Wilson, a former technical adviser to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Biosurveillance Integration Center.

Ebola is not airborne, Wilson said, which means the chances for the virus to spread in the United States is extremely low. The nation’s health care system has the necessary resources and health care professionals to ensure the virus does not cause the misery experienced in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

“In Africa, we find very high mortality, but we have a very high survivability in the United States,” Wilson told the crowd, the largest collection of experts from different disciplines to gather to discuss Ebola preparations in Nevada.

The task force brought together public health specialists, epidemiologists, emergency responders, hospital officials and health personnel. Each sector explained what steps have been taken and the work remaining to make the state ready to respond to the unlikely event that a person gets sick from the virus in Nevada.

A primary focus of the group was minimizing risk of exposure to any health care worker who might be involved in identifying, isolating and caring for an Ebola patient in Nevada. Task force member Dr. Dale Carrison stressed the need for getting any possible patient straight to the correct facility to eliminate any transfers involving more health care workers than necessary.

Carrison might have been referring to the decision by Dr. Joseph Iser, chief medical officer for the Southern Nevada Health District, not to publicly identify the hospitals where possible Ebola patients will be taken by emergency medical personnel. Iser said Wednesday that officials from the hospitals volunteered their facilities be so designated, but he remained unwilling to name them, citing safety and security reasons.

Fewer than five people who have recently traveled from the three affected countries are in Nevada, state Epidemiologist Dr. Ihsan Azzam said. Travelers coming from those countries are being screened at airports, and public health officials are alerted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Personal protection for health care professionals was a recurrent theme Wednesday with concerns frequently raised about whether enough gear was available in the state to keep doctors and nurses safe.

Christopher Lake, director of preparedness for the Nevada Hospital Association, said most hospitals have enough protective equipment to care for one Ebola patient for 24 to 48 hours. Nurse educators are facing a challenge in getting enough gear to provide sufficient training opportunities to their staffs.