The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
City ready in unlikely event of Ebola outbreak
MIDDLETOWN» City officials agree that the chances of the Ebola virus posing a threat to local residents are slim— but they are prepared for the unlikely event nonetheless.
The city announced Wednesday that it had updated its emergency operations plan in cooperation with local first responders, medical professionals and school administrators.
A Yale University graduate student who had traveled to Liberia, where Ebola is much
more prevalent, recently tested negative for the virus after admittance to Yale-New Haven Hospital with symptoms that could have indicated the virus.
Mayor Daniel Drew said Friday that “there is an awful lot of mis information out there, some of which is contributing to a lot of the hysteria.”
Dr. Joseph Havlicek, the city’s health director, said that contracting the virus was much more complicated — and unlikely — than some people believe.
“There’s no airborne transmission,” said Havlicek. “It’s basically passed on from touching body fluids, which includes sweat, nasal secretion, mouth, diarrhea, whatever.”
“This is not the bubonic plague,” said Drew. That notwithstanding, “it is serious and we take it seriously and we are preparing in the event that something comes out.”
“You have to ask the right questions,” said Havlicek. “Whether they’ve been to West Africa, whether they’ve been in contact with a patient with known Ebola.” The symptoms – fevers, aches and pains, vomiting and diarrhea – are common to other viruses, so accurate history is crucial, said the doctor.
And those who are infected are not even contagious until they begin to show symptons.
“Most people develop symptoms within the first five days of having contact,” said Havlicek. Although the incubation period can last from two to 21 days, people who may have had contact with infected patients are likely in the clear after a week, he added.
Drew said that city officials fromthe health, fire and police departments and Office of Emergency, local paramedics and officials from city public and private schools and colleges have all been involved in a comprehensive planning process, and the city has even consulted doctors from hospitals outside the city.
The mayor said that, should the unlikely happen, “we would immediately secure any are and any patient that we’re talking about.”
“The (state) health department would be notified,” said Havlicek.
“The commissioner is the only one who can isolate people and quarantine people at this point … the governor made it an emergency situation yesterday, so it changed things. Normally I could quarantine people.”
“Everything we’re doing here is precautionary, it’s not because we have any concerns about any imminent threat,” said Drew. “There is absolutely no need to panic. This is something that, while serious and we take it seriously, has really been hyped to some extent by the broader television media.”
“That’s not to say it’s not a threat, I just want people to keep it in context that on an annual basis about 52,000 people die fromthe flu in the U.S.,” said the mayor.
“There are roughly 35,000 gun deaths nationwide. There are a lot of things we face on a regular basis that pose significantly greater threats.”