Until the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is contained there will be some risk of a patient with the virus coming in contact with Vermont’s health care system, but that risk is “very small,” according to state health officials.
The recent cases in Dallas illustrate Ebola can reach the U.S., and state officials are taking precautions seriously despite the low likelihood of an outbreak.
The Vermont Department of Health is working with hospitals, emergency departments, EMS responders, health care providers and others, “so that everyone will respond appropriately in the unlikely event Ebola comes here,” according to an editorial by health officials on the department’s website.
Hospital officials and the Vermont Association of Nurses and Health Care Professionals, the union representing workers at Fletcher Allen Health Care — the state’s largest hospital — have said they’re doing additional training with doctors and nurses to make sure they ask patients the proper screening questions and know what protocols to follow if there is a potential Ebola case.
“We want to make sure that health care providers ‘think Ebola’ and ask patients about their travel history,” Chen and interim commissioner Tracy Dolan wrote in a commentary.
Over the weekend, Dr. Harry Chen, interim Secretary of the Agency of Human Services and former health department commissioner addressed a conference of EMS workers on the state’s preparedness efforts.
The Department of Health is currently developing trainings for health care workers that focus on how to screen for Ebola patients and the use of personal protective gear when treating a potential case of Ebola, said Mike Leyden, Deputy Director of Emergency Medical Services for the department.
A separate “templated kit,” essentially a mock-Ebola drill, is being developed and will be distributed to hospitals as well, Leyden said, adding that he does not have a timeline for when either will be available.
The department is not currently purchasing additional protective equipment, as some other states are doing and experiencing backorders, as has been reported in New Hampshire.
“At this point the CDC guidance still matches the equipment that is already available in our system,” Leyden said.
Vermont is keeping up with the latest federal guidance on Ebola preparedness and learning from other states, according to Chen and Dolan.
Though Ebola is an unfamiliar virus in the U.S., “our expertise and experience in controlling the spread of infectious disease and protecting public health is among the best in the world,” Chen and Dolan write.
Ebola is also more difficult to transmit than the flu or measles. People cannot get it through the air, water or food. Ebola can only be spread through direct contact with blood or bodily fluids from a person who is sick and showing symptoms of Ebola. A person who has no symptoms cannot spread the virus.
For more information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention click here.
A recent poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that the public has a basic understanding of Ebola, but many misconceptions persist.
Nearly all adults surveyed — 97 percent — knew Ebola could be transmitted by direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids, but only 45 percent were aware that it could not be transmitted through the air.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the largest in history, continues to claim lives and create extreme hardship for the public there and frontline health care workers attempting to contain it. More than 4,500 people have died from Ebola in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the combined epicenter of the outbreak.
Brant Goode, a nurse and epidemiologist with the Department of Health, is currently in Liberia, educating health workers on how to protect themselves. He will not be providing direct patient care.
State officials have applauded Goode for his selfless bravery joining other CDC workers in supporting containment efforts in Liberia.
Goode is among 139 CDC workers currently on the ground in West Africa. There are roughly 1,000 CDC workers providing logistical and other support services remotely to the containment effort.
The public and some members of Congress have called for a travel ban to the three West African nations, but the Obama administration, the CDC and aid groups have opposed the idea, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
They say a ban wouldn’t substantially decrease the odds of people infected with Ebola making it to the U.S. and would restrict the flow of aid workers and supplies to the region.
