It would appear that Canada is taking precautions. (Hospitals here geared up for epidemics after the SARS episode a few years back.)
Health Ministers Reassure Canadians Over Ebola Fears
http://www.am980.ca/2014/10/01/health-ministers-ebola-fears/
London, Ontario, Canada / (CFPL AM) AM 980
October 01, 2014 07:05 am
Canadian health ministers are speaking out to reassure the public over fears surrounding the Ebola virus following the discovery of a case in the United States.
Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial health ministers are meeting in Banff, Alberta.
Ontario Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins says Canada’s hospitals have some of the best infection control measures in the world in place.
“We are all deeply concerned about what is going on in the U.S.,” Hoskins, a family physician, said in Banff. “It is important to reassure Canadians, North America is not West Africa. We have right across this country, in every province and territory, we have extremely effective infection control measures in place and protocols.”
Fears in Canada rose after a man who flew from Liberia to Texas has become the first patient infected with the deadly Ebola virus to be diagnosed in the United States, health officials said on Tuesday, a sign the outbreak ravaging West Africa may spread globally.
The patient sought treatment six days after arriving in Texas on Sept. 20, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters. He was admitted two days later to an isolation room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
Hoskins said surveillance for possible Ebola cases by public health officials has been heightened and health providers across Canada are being made aware of how to recognize and deal with any suspected cases.
Canada’s new chief medical officer of health also insisted this country has been preparing for the possibility of imported Ebola cases.
“Canada is well prepared with a number of systems in place to identify and prevent the spread of serious infectious diseases like Ebola, such as working closely with our international partners to gather and assess information and administering the Quarantine Act at all points of entry into Canada,” Dr. Gregory Taylor said in a statement.
Ebola symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding, and can appear as long as 21 days after exposure to the virus. The virus is not airborne, rather the transmission of Ebola occurs through contact with bodily fluids — such as blood, sweat and feces — from infected humans or animals.
U.S. health officials and lawmakers have been bracing for the eventuality that a patient would arrive on U.S. shores undetected, testing the preparedness of the nation’s healthcare system. On Tuesday, Frieden and other health authorities said they were taking every step possible to ensure the virus did not spread widely.
“It is certainly possible someone who had contact with this individual could develop Ebola in the coming weeks,” Frieden told a news conference. “I have no doubt we will stop this in its tracks in the United States.”
Frieden said a handful of people, mostly family members, may have been exposed to the patient after he fell ill and that health authorities were tracking down anyone who might have had contact with the man. The emergency responders who transported the man to the hospital have been quarantined, according to a statement from Dallas city officials.
He said there was likely no threat to any airline passengers because the patient had no symptoms during his flight. Asked whether the patient was a U.S. citizen, Frieden described the person as a visitor to family in the country.
At least 3,091 people have died from Ebola in the worst outbreak on record that has been ravaging Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in West Africa. More than 6,500 cases have been diagnosed, and
the CDC has warned that the number of infections could rise to as many as 1.4 million people by early next year without a massive global intervention to contain the virus.
U.S. hospitals have treated, and released, three aid workers who were infected in Africa and flown back to the United States under strict medical supervision in a specially outfitted airplane.
A fourth person is being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia and a fifth person who may have been exposed to the virus is under observation at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
The Ebola outbreak has overwhelmed health systems in Africa, one of the world’s poorest regions, prompting the U.S. government and other nations to send funds, supplies and personnel to stop its spread.
Artie.
