Officials shift focus after Ebola wanes

CELINA - The Ebola outbreak that dominated headlines and set off international panic in late 2014 appears to be waning, leading local health officials to shift their focus toward other infectious diseases.

The experience, though, helped prepare them for an outbreak and they're ready should a deadly virus rage locally, county epidemiologist Deb Scheer said.

"We're very much prepared. We exercise all the time," she said.

The Ebola outbreaks in West Africa were to be declared over on Jan. 14 but a new case appeared in Sierra Leone and pushed back the date, county emergency re-sponse coordinator Bill Steinbrunner said during Tuesday's meeting of the Mercer County Healthcare Disaster Preparedness Coalition.

"It does seem to be moving toward control, I guess is the best way to describe it. There aren't any active cases in the United States. There are no travelers, I don't think, that are even being monitored anymore," he said. "So, Ebola is kind of beginning to drop off our radar a little bit."

The outbreak caused health officials to review their techniques and policies "that we can really apply to any other kind of an outbreak of a similar kind of disease," Steinbrunner said.

"What I've seen since I've been involved is that it has provided us an opportunity to take a look at what we're doing about those types of infectious diseases that could become a significant problem if we don't have plans for dealing with it."

Jenny Conn, director of emergency services and disaster preparedness coordinator at Mercer Health, said the Coldwater hospital's staff likely will continue to ask patients about travel abroad.

"Our travel alert signage for Ebola has changed to reflect only Guinea but remains in place," she said. "Our staff continue to screen patients by asking about recent travel outside the U.S."

A team of nurses trained to care for Ebola patients is transitioning to a multidisciplinary outfit to focus on many types of highly infectious diseases, Conn said.

At any given time, she said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues travel alerts for several diseases.

"We monitor these closely to ensure we are abreast of any diseases or situations that may present in Mercer County and warrant our attention," she said.

Nurses trained in Ebola care can apply that knowledge to other diseases, she said.

"When caring for a potential Ebola patient, the nurses serve many different roles to minimize exposure to other departments. This will allow us to maintain a certain level of preparedness for many types of infectious diseases, including Ebola," she told the newspaper.

Scheer said a full-scale Ebola exercise was conducted in December 2014 with Mercer Health, the health board, jail, EMS and other agencies participating.

"We have great support from our county partners. We have great meetings," she said.

In 2009, county agencies really started coming together to deal with the H1N1 flu. It dominated the news in 2009 and taxed the resources of health departments across the nation.

The health department at the time was able to hire additional staff members who staffed H1N1 flu clinics and helped meet state and federal requirements, Palmer said.

"That was the time where really people did come together and we did mass vaccinate the whole community," Scheer said.

The health department's drive-thru flu clinic - which this year administered 598 flu vaccines - also helps prepare health officials for a potential outbreak, she said.

"At the same time people are learning if we had to mass vaccinate how we would do that process and then lessons learned and then we improve that next year," she said.

In the event of an outbreak, the health department would be the lead agency, Scheer said.

"We would work with all our county agencies and even long-term care facilities, the hospitals," she said.