While Congress and president attempt to formulate a plan for dealing with the Ebola virus on an international level, Navajo County health officials have already started work, the board of supervisors learned during a meeting on Monday.
“The EOC (Emergency Operations Center) has been activated since May,” said Emergency Services Director John Zimmerman. “We are monitoring this on a daily basis.”
The agency’s plan for controlling an infectious disease outbreak, including Ebola and other serious illnesses such as hantavirus and tuberculosis, includes education for monitoring and quarantine.
Zimmerman noted that the department has held 14 trainings for hospital and first responder personnel in the last two weeks to prepare them for any potential Ebola cases. Upon a question from the audience regarding hospital requirements, Zimmerman noted that the training provides guidelines and suggested practices, but county health officials have no legal authority to force hospitals to adopt specific procedures. He explained that the training being offered is based on the guidelines established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Navajo County health officials receive daily lists of travelers who are from or have recently visited areas most affected by Ebola.
“So far we have not had anyone,” Zimmerman said. “Coconino County has had two and Yavapai County has had two.”
He told the board that as of Nov. 10, there have been a total of 13,268 cases of Ebola in eight countries, resulting in 4,960 deaths.
Zimmerman explained that Ebola is not the only infectious disease that county officials have been monitoring. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, often shortened to MERS-CoV is a human coronavirus that was first recognized in Saudi Arabia in 2012. It has since made its way to several other countries and Zimmerman pointed out that it is now spreading through Europe.
“It has a 30 percent mortality rate,” he said.
He noted that in addition to the mortality rate, one of the major concerns, from a public health perspective, is that for every two people who contract the virus, one medical provider does so as well. A rapid spread of the illness could create a shortage of healthcare providers available to treat patients.
“By 2015 we expect to see clusters of this in metropolitan areas,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s coming to Arizona, but we have to be ready.”
Dr. Wade Kartchner, who contracts with the health district, told the board that the agency has been dealing with serious infectious diseases that are already known to be in the county for some time now, such as tuberculosis and hantavirus. He noted that the health department is obligated to provide treatment for tuberculosis patients and has a monitoring system in place to ensure that patients properly complete their course of treatment to reduce the potential spread of the illness.
Kartchner pointed out that the county has had cases of plague and West Nile Virus in animals, but, fortunately, has not had any human cases. They are a possibility, however, and certain animal populations are monitored to help reduce the chance of a human outbreak.
The health district also operates a travelers’ clinic at which individuals traveling to certain areas can receive recommended vaccines and information on reducing the risk of contracting an infectious disease during travel.
