Ebola: 10 people in Michigan being monitored for symptoms

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Registered nurse Keene Roadman, stands fully dressed in personal protective equipment during a training class at the Rush University Medical Center, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014, in Chicago. With hospital workers increasingly in the spotlight of concern over the spread of the Ebola virus, the hospital held a training session for a team of medical professionals with expertise in intensive care and infection control. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com

By Emily Lawler | elawler@mlive.com
on October 29, 2014 at 12:57 PM

LANSING, MI – There are 10 individuals in Michigan who are being monitored for potential Ebola exposure, according to the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH).
“We’re working with the local health departments to monitor, it’s actually 10 individuals now who are at low risk of Ebola right now,” said MDCH spokesperson Jennifer Smith.
Low risk means that these people have no known exposure to Ebola, no symptoms and are in generally good health. What makes them a risk at all is they have traveled to regions of Africa where the virus exists.
Ebola is a virus that presents with flu-like symptoms, is spread through contact with body fluids and has affected the African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 94 percent of passengers from those countries come into five airports: Washington-Dulles, Newark, JFK international Airport in New York, Chicago-O’Hare and Atlanta.

While none of those airports are located in Michigan, some people who have come from the West African region on flights through those airports are now in Michigan.
“These are individuals that we became aware of through the screening process at the airports,” Smith said.
Under recently updated CDC guidelines released Monday, state and local health departments are advised to actively or directly monitor potential Ebola exposure, rather than having people monitor themselves.
Smith said the 10 individuals are contacted twice daily to monitor for symptoms, but their movement is not restricted. They are monitored for 21 days past their potential for exposure. Ebola’s incubation period is between two and 21 days.
The MDCH is not releasing information on where in Michigan the monitoring is occurring.
“There isn’t a new or increased risk to the general public at this time, and for privacy reasons we are not disclosing the specific locations,” Smith said.
Kent County officials on Oct. 24 disclosed the monitoring of one person. In Ingham County, Health Officer Linda Vail said there are no people being monitored. Oakland County on Oct. 17 said one individual was self-monitoring.
The state and local health departments are following CDC standards in this monitoring, Smith said.  http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2014/10/ebola_10_people_in_michigan_be.html