EBOLA 2 people monitored for Ebola in Sacramento County

[marsh]

http://www.kcra.com/news/2-people-being-monitored-for-ebola-in-sacramento-co/29290924

Includes video

2 people monitored for Ebola in Sacramento County

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —California officials have been working for weeks to prepare for the potential of treating an Ebola patient in the state.

Despite state officials' constant conversations with hospitals, it's still not clear which California hospitals -- if any -- would be designated to care for an Ebola patient.

At a news conference last week, the state's top health officials said they are choosing a few hospitals best prepared to do the job.

"It may be within a health care system or within a regional area -- hospitals that we know are fully prepared," said Dr. Gil Chavez, the deputy director of the California Department of Public Health and the state's chief of infectious diseases. "And if we have a patient, we can actually transfer patients to those hospitals."

But the California Hospital Association said Wednesday no such plans have been made.

"Whether we're going to move in that direction or not is undetermined, but it is a topic of discussion," said the organization's vice president, Jan Emerson-Shea.

In addition, a spokesman for the CDPH would not say on Wednesday whether the state still intends to designate Ebola-specific hospitals.

One U.S. patient treated for Ebola went to Emory University in Atlanta. Another was treated at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.

Both hospitals are considered to be among those specially prepared to care for Ebola.

It's not clear whether a California patient with the same diagnosis would be taken out of state for treatment.

In Sacramento County, health officials are monitoring two people who recently traveled to West Africa, where the Ebola outbreak is centered, but officials said neither person is showing symptoms and neither has been hospitalized.

"Our directive to all of the hospitals is that they need to be prepared to take care of an Ebola patient at least for a minimum of two days because that's about how long it would take for us to get a definitive diagnosis," said Dr. Olivia Kasirye, Sacramento County's health officer.

Only then would health officials decide whether the patient would be transferred, and where, Kasirye said.

Although there are no suspected cases of Ebola in California, public anxiety over the illness has been high since two nurses in Dallas contracted the virus after treating a patient.

The CDPH has launched a new Ebola hotline to answer questions from worried residents.

Although the hospital association has said hospitals are ready to handle Ebola, the state's nurses said no hospital in California is fully ready.

Nurses have been demanding better training and protective gear and have asked Gov. Jerry Brown to mandate hospitals to provide both.

The California Department of Public Health has established an Ebola hotline call center to respond to public inquiries related to Ebola, announced Dr. Ron Chapman, CDPH director and state health officer.

The hotline, 855-421-5921 will be in operation from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

____________________

Notes: There is a settlement of W. Africans in Sacramento
The video said they were "self monitoring" and free to move around
The video said they are relying on the airlines to inform them if someone is sick. at which time the plane will be set aside, the person isolated and removed.

CDPH website: http://www.cdph.ca.gov/Pages/DEFAULT.aspx U.C. Hospitals designated for Ebola

 

[TxGal]

If they don't put in quarantines for people flying in from those countries, whether or not they admit to having contact with ebola patients (would they tell the truth, really?), it's just a matter of time before we have it in all states.

 

[Be Well]

Self monitoring is theater.

 

[hunybee]

could this be one of the people the are monitoring?

Another doctor who treated Ebola came through JFK



A physician who treated dying Ebola patients in Liberia flew in to JFK on Thursday night — and stayed at an airport hotel, a source told The Post.
Colin Bucks, a clinical assistant professor at Stanford University’s medical school, arrived on a Royal Moroccan Air flight, sources said.
He spent the night at the Hilton Garden Inn in Jamaica, Queens, where Centers for Disease Control workers also stay, according to a source.
On Friday, he was cleared to travel home to Northern California, where he will “be monitored by CDC there,” the source said.
“He is asymptomatic and he’s being allowed to leave the hotel and fly home,” a source added.
Sources said that Bucks, who works with International Medical Corps, was told to self-quarantine at the hotel, but he told The Post he merely missed a connecting flight. He said he was screened at the airport in Africa and again upon arrival at Kennedy airport.
“If there had been a flight yesterday, I would’ve not spent the night here,” he said in a telephone interview.
Bucks is strictly following the CDC’s recommendations and self-monitoring, he said. The CDC is also keeping track of his whereabouts, as standard protocol dictates, he added.
“I worked for over a month with no national staff or ex-patriot staff showing any signs of illness,” he said. “In general I’m amazed by the national staff I was working with. I really want them to be viewed as the heroes of Ebola response.
Bucks didn’t know Spencer, but said, “It sounds like this is someone who’s cut from the same cloth as me who followed all the rules and has not put other people at risk.”
He’s confident that by following proper guidelines, health care workers can do life-saving work abroad and stay safe.
“I have every confidence that [by] following CDC return recommendations, nurses, doctors, lab technicians can go to West Africa and do what’s necessary to protect the rest of the world and not come back and be the ones that need protection.”
On Friday afternoon, the governors of New York and New Jersey announced extra measures that will require all at-risk passengers touching down at JFK and Newark Liberty airports from Ebola-stricken countries to be quarantined for 21 days.

 

[Mulder]

This story just keeps getting better and better. </sarc> It's amazing how little we are hearing about this from the media.

 

[Be Well]

This story just keeps getting better and better. </sarc> It's amazing how little we are hearing about this from the media.

They've been ordered to shut up about ebola other than happy calming stories.

 

[marsh]

It was interesting in the video that they talked about showing the isolated people how to take their temperature. The CDC "kit" and many of the assumptions such as signage may be useless if the person doesn't read English or is illiterate.

 

[Wise Owl]

links needed on these stories so if they have updates we can find them.

could this be one of the people the are monitoring?

Another doctor who treated Ebola came through JFK



A physician who treated dying Ebola patients in Liberia flew in to JFK on Thursday night — and stayed at an airport hotel, a source told The Post.
Colin Bucks, a clinical assistant professor at Stanford University’s medical school, arrived on a Royal Moroccan Air flight, sources said.
He spent the night at the Hilton Garden Inn in Jamaica, Queens, where Centers for Disease Control workers also stay, according to a source.
On Friday, he was cleared to travel home to Northern California, where he will “be monitored by CDC there,” the source said.
“He is asymptomatic and he’s being allowed to leave the hotel and fly home,” a source added.
Sources said that Bucks, who works with International Medical Corps, was told to self-quarantine at the hotel, but he told The Post he merely missed a connecting flight. He said he was screened at the airport in Africa and again upon arrival at Kennedy airport.
“If there had been a flight yesterday, I would’ve not spent the night here,” he said in a telephone interview.
Bucks is strictly following the CDC’s recommendations and self-monitoring, he said. The CDC is also keeping track of his whereabouts, as standard protocol dictates, he added.
“I worked for over a month with no national staff or ex-patriot staff showing any signs of illness,” he said. “In general I’m amazed by the national staff I was working with. I really want them to be viewed as the heroes of Ebola response.
Bucks didn’t know Spencer, but said, “It sounds like this is someone who’s cut from the same cloth as me who followed all the rules and has not put other people at risk.”
He’s confident that by following proper guidelines, health care workers can do life-saving work abroad and stay safe.
“I have every confidence that [by] following CDC return recommendations, nurses, doctors, lab technicians can go to West Africa and do what’s necessary to protect the rest of the world and not come back and be the ones that need protection.”
On Friday afternoon, the governors of New York and New Jersey announced extra measures that will require all at-risk passengers touching down at JFK and Newark Liberty airports from Ebola-stricken countries to be quarantined for 21 days.