NEWS

Officials: Area prepared for potential Ebola outbreak

Ken Palmer
Lansing State Journal

Hoping to quell concerns about Ebola, local leaders and health officials said they are prepared to handle a potential outbreak in the Lansing area and stressed that area residents are at far higher risk of getting the flu.

“We want to remind and reassure people across the Lansing region that the chances of Ebola coming here are very small,” Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero said during a news conference Monday.

But “even in a worst-case scenario, if someone in the Lansing region were actually exposed to Ebola, we have the capacity to stop it cold,” he said.

Officials from the Ingham County Health Department, Michigan State University and the area’s two largest health systems also spoke to reporters at the county government complex in south Lansing.

They said they want to ease fears that have grown since two Texas nurses were diagnosed with the deadly virus. Both are recovering, and Sunday marked the end of a quarantine period for some people who were in contact with Thomas Eric Duncan before his became the first case diagnosed in the United States.

“We’ve seen a lot of fear, a lot of concern, a lot of worry, a lot of reacting — perhaps even overreacting,” Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail said in an interview.

Lansing-area residents should know they have “a very, very low risk” of getting Ebola and that “we are very much prepared to do something, should it happen, and contain this within our community,” she said.

Officials from Sparrrow Health System and McLaren-Greater Lansing said they are screening patients for the virus and have procedures in place to deal with an Ebola infection.

“This community is extraordinarily well-prepared for any potential infection that we might see,” said Dr. Brian Schroeder, Sparrow’s chief medical officer.

Anyone with certain symptoms — such as high fever, severe headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and muscle pain — is asked a series of questions, including whether they’ve traveled internationally, Schroeder said. Anyone who might have been exposed will be isolated and the county health department notified, he said.

If necessary, the patient will be transferred to one of the sites designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, none of which are in Michigan.

Dr. Linda Peterson, chief medical officer for McLaren-Greater Lansing, said McLaren has assembled an Ebola task force and standardized a protocol for all 13 of its hospitals.

Dr. David Weismantel, university physician at MSU, said the university is heeding the CDC’s ban on academic-related trips to the epidemic regions in Africa. It’s also refining its response plans in “the very unlikely event of Ebola disease on our campus.”

Mid-Michigan residents have an extremely low risk of getting Ebola and are far more likely to get the flu, which will kill more than 100 people this year, Ingham County’s Vail said.

“If there’s one take-home message today, it’s go out and get your flu shot,” Schroeder said.

Online resources

The Centers for Disease Control has information online on Ebola. Go to http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/. The link can also be accessed from McLaren Greater Lansing Hospital’s website http://www.mclaren.org/lansing/lansing.aspx.