Dayton reviews state's Ebola preparedness

With Ebola anxiety spreading faster in the United State than the virus itself, Gov. Mark Dayton reviewed Minnesota's preparedness measures with top cabinet officials Thursday and said he will ask that Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport join five others getting special federal medical screening.

"Minnesotans should be assured that everything humanly possible is being done," Dayton said. The governor said he left the meeting feeling "hopeful" that the state's public health system is ready to deploy quarantines and other safety measures to halt the virus. Dayton said he was reassured that hospitals statewide are prepared to detect and isolate Ebola patients.

He said a request to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for airport screening here makes sense because of Minnesota's large Liberian community. The West African nation is at the center of an Ebola outbreak that has afflicted at least 8,000 people and resulted in at least 3,800 deaths. The CDC this week announced tighter health screenings at airports in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Newark and Washington, D.C.

Dayton convened Thursday's meeting in part to address what his cabinet acknowledged is a heightened level of concern among Minnesotans, even though state health officials believe the risk of cases here is fairly low.

"People worry," said Dr. Ed Ehlinger, state health commissioner. "They take it to a level that is beyond the concern that they really should have."

Hospital and health officials were taking precautions well before the first (and so far only) U.S.-diagnosed Ebola case was reported in Dallas last week, partly because of the Twin Cities' large Liberian community. The Dallas patient died Wednesday.

Hospitals train staff

Despite the alarming death rate in West Africa, state health officials are confident they could contain any outbreak here.

Unlike seasonal flu viruses, for example, the current Ebola virus cannot spread through the air. Instead it is transmitted by physical contact with the saliva, blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person.

Fever and other prominent symptoms typically appear before a patient becomes contagious, giving hospitals and clinics a chance to identify Ebola cases early and isolate the patients and anyone who has had close contact with them.

Metro hospitals such as Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis have conducted drills and trained staff on isolating patients and notifying infectious disease experts.

Officials from the Minnesota Department of Health said Thursday they also have practiced outbreak scenarios; the department has a system for notifying people at risk of exposure, checking on them to make sure they are healthy and following any restrictions while their infection status is unknown.

"Practicing for a case and having a case are two different things. We always have to keep that in mind," said Kris Ehresmann, infectious disease director for the Minnesota Department of Health.

"But we have an excellent health care system in this country." West Africa's outbreak has been severe, she added, largely because "Ebola came into a society with a decimated health care system."

State in top 10

The Ebola risk in Minnesota didn't increase with the case in Dallas, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. If anything, the risk decreased because it put every hospital and public health agency on guard, he said.

"The key piece here is early recognition of an infection," Osterholm said. "Will people make the connection between travel to West Africa and the possibility the illness the patient is being seen for is due to the Ebola virus?"

Osterholm predicted there will be no Ebola outbreak in the United States.

Even though hundreds of American health care workers have traveled to West Africa to treat Ebola patients, only two so far have suffered infections, he said. "And they were under the most severe of conditions. I mean, blood everywhere."

Osterholm said Minnesota is in a stronger position than other states to confront an outbreak. Annual reviews by Trust for America's Health grade Minnesota among the top 10 for readiness to combat infectious diseases. Minnesota already had a dry run in April, when a man traveling home from Africa showed serious signs of illness on a flight from New York to Minneapolis. Ebola was among the concerns, but health officials discovered the man suffered from Lassa fever — an infectious disease that, like Ebola, is found in Africa and spreads through contact with bodily fluids.

Health officials identified 169 people who had contact with the man, kept in close contact with them and asked them to monitor their health and temperature, Ehresmann said.

State health officials even drove thermometers out to people's homes. No additional infections were identified.

The Lassa fever case, however, underscores the risk of travelers bringing Ebola into this country.

That, along with Minnesota's large Liberian community, prompted the governor's request for screening of at-risk passengers at the Twin Cities airport — even though it receives no direct flights from the high-risk African nations.

Already, the Minneapolis airport has a quarantine room where security staff can direct travelers showing signs of fever or illness. If a screening by a CDC doctor there determines the patient is at high risk for Ebola, the patient would be taken by ambulance to HCMC or another hospital.

Delta, the largest airline in the Twin Cities, has a system that allows workers to call a doctor at the University of Pittsburgh to assess patients who appear to be suffering from a fever or severe illness before allowing them to board a flight.

Ehlinger said he supported the request for heightened airport screening, though he said the other five airports already account for 94 percent of the passengers coming from high-risk African nations.

"It's sort of like having a belt and suspenders," he said.

Jeremy Olson • 612-673-7744