Ebola fears can escalate past actual risk

Anxiety surrounding the deadly Ebola virus heightened after the first two American aid workers infected in Liberia returned to Atlanta for treatment.

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And fears have run rampant since the Thomas Eric Duncan, then two of the nurses who cared for him, became the first, second and third people diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.

Statistics on the infectious virus are plentiful in the around the clock news coverage. But one fact remains buried amid the panic: four times as many Americans will die this year of seasonal flu than all of the people killed by Ebola worldwide in this most recent outbreak.

And at the same time hospitals and health officials are ramping up their preparations should a patient with a risk of Ebola exposure arrive here, they also urge average New Jerseyans to keep a realistic perspective on their potential of coming in contact with the disease.

"We don't mean to belittle the concerns with Ebola," said Kerry McKean Kelly, spokeswoman with the New Jersey Hospital Association, which is coordinating drills among emergency departments in the state to identify and isolate Ebola patients.

"We urge people to be just as vigilant to get their seasonal flu shots."

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How widespread the Ebola fear is among Shore-area residents is hard to gauge.

Monmouth County Regional Health Commission has only gotten one call about Ebola in the past three weeks, county health officer Dave Henry said.

At the same time, a news story from August about a patient isolated at CentraState Medical Center because they had flu-like symptoms and had traveled to West Africa gained traffic on social media and briefly went viral, before social media quashed it as old news. That patient did not have Ebola.

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Henry said his staff is gathering as much information as possible about Ebola so they can answer the public's questions, keeping municipalities and law enforcement up to date and learning about what tools it has in state law to quarantine people in the community who had a potential exposure to Ebola.

Likewise, he said people should keep informed on Ebola through the Centers for Disease Control and New Jersey Department of Health websites as well as the media.

"Given this is a very serious disease, what happens is we want the public to be as knowledgeable as possible, but to try to reduce any unnecessary fears," he said. "I think basically the more factual information the public gets, the better off everyone will be."

Being informed, he said, should keep Ebola anxiety at bay.

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How anxious a person can get over the potential for a deadly infection depends in part on their own propensity to have fear, two psychology professors from Monmouth University said. Those whose fears go out of control because of the deadly repercussions of Ebola need to practice a technique called "reality checking" — stating to themselves the facts surrounding their actual risk.

"You are not traveling. You are in New Jersey. You are not exposed to people with Ebola," said Dr. Gary Handler, a professor of psychological counseling at Monmouth University, psychologist and mental health practitioner. "Your chances of that happening versus a car accident on the highway are not even comparable. You're more likely to be in a car accident."

Talking themselves into a calmed state can be harder for those with a greater propensity for fear, but it makes it even more critical for them to work harder to stop the fear, said Dr. George Kapalka, the chairman of the psychological counseling department of Monmouth University.

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Shore-area residents can take comfort that hospitals continually train for infectious disease control. The New Jersey Hospital Association and the state Health Department sent a letter to all acute-care hospitals Friday asking them to conduct the unannounced drills in their emergency departments this week.

Under the scenario, a person comes in complaining of flu-like symptoms and say they have recently traveled to a West African country. Patients citing both are supposed to be immediately isolated in a private room with a private bathroom, according to CDC guidelines.

Barnabas Health hospitals in Ocean and Monmouth counties conducted their drills Tuesday. CentraState's emergency department will conduct their drill this week, however hospital spokeswoman Abbey Luterick declined to say what day to maintain the integrity of a surprise drill for its staff.

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All hospitals tests their procedures regularly, Luterick said. Sunday, for example, CentraState hosted a drill with emergency responders on how it would handle a mass food poisoning.

Even before the Ebola concerns, CentraState also had hand sanitizer stations in its emergency and asked patients with flu-like symptoms to wear masks to prevent spreading illness. It has added signs asking patients to tell staff about their travel history.

And while this week's statewide drills are specific to Ebola, the steps hospitals take are very similar to procedures for any highly contagious and deadly diseases, said Richard Ridge, executive director for the New Jersey State Nurses' Association. Those protocols would be similar to those taken for a patient that would arrive with symptoms associated with anthrax, smallpox and SARS, he said.

While all hospitals should prepare for the immediate response of a potentially Ebola-infected patient walking in their doors, Ridge said his association believes patients diagnosed with Ebola should be transported to one of four bio-containment units in the country for long-term care.

Those centers — the nearest to New Jersey is in Maryland — specialize in this type of care, and similar steps are taken to transfer, say, burn patients to hospitals with expertise in burn treatment.

"All nurses want to do is take care of patients and their families and go home to their own families. It's just a matter of providing the proper environment," he said. "Why don't we err on the side of caution?"

How Ebola spreads

• Ebola is not transmitted through the air, but rather is spread through bodily fluids like blood, urine or mucus. However Ebola symptoms start out similar to other viral illnesses.

• It is also not spread through food or water, however researchers believe, in Africa, Ebola may be spread as a result of handling bushmeat and contact with infected bats.

• Healthcare providers as well as friends and family of Ebola patients are at the highest risk of getting sick because they may come in contact with infected blood or body fluids of sick patients. Exposure to Ebola can occur in healthcare settings where hospital staff are not wearing appropriate protective equipment, including masks, gowns, gloves and eye protection.

Centers for Disease Control

Ebola symptoms

• Initial symptoms of Ebola are the same as those a person experiences with the flu, including fever, headache, muscle pain, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain. Patients may also have unexplained bleeding.

• Symptoms on average appear within eight to 10 days, but can appear anywhere from two to 21 days after exposure.

• There is no FDA-approved vaccine for Ebola.

Centers for Disease Control