An American health care worker in West Africa was transported by private plane to Omaha to be observed for possible Ebola symptoms, it was announced Sunday.
In an email to staff, Nebraska Medicine CEO Bill Dinsmoor and President Bradley Britigan, M.D., dean of the UNMC College of Medicine, said the case will be different than previous ones, primarily because the person is not coming to the Biocontainment Unit. Under the direction of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), this person will be staying at a location near the med center where public health officials from the Douglas County Health Department will be able to monitor them for the possibility of symptoms.
The email stressed three key points:
- This person does not have Ebola, is not showing symptoms and therefore not contagious and is not a risk to the public.
- Nebraska Medicine is, at this point, not involved.
- Should this person have a positive Ebola test at some point in the future, we stand ready to help.
“The CDC wants to remind everyone there is no public health concern with this person. They are simply being monitored close to the facility so that if our expertise is needed, they will be close by,” Dr. Britigan and Dinsmoor said in the email.
Ebola is spread through direct contact with the body fluids of a sick person or exposure to objects such as contaminated needles, the email continued, noting that the illness has an average eight-to10-day incubation period (although it also could be from two to 21 days) so CDC recommends monitoring exposed people for symptoms for a total of 21 days. People are not contagious during the incubation period, meaning before symptoms such as a fever develops.
“As with all previous Ebola cases locally, we will keep everyone here at Nebraska Medicine informed should anything change,” the email concluded.