Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center is one of five hospitals across the country to recently agree to take in American Ebola patients airlifted from West Africa. While officials say that the chance of public exposure is minimal, that hasn’t prevented airline and cruise-ship workers to sound the alarm when someone falls ill.
Even the Seattle Police Department (SPD) is hesitant to cause further, unnecessary anxiety. In the “SPD Ebola Fact Sheet” released on Friday, Oct. 17, by Paul McDonough, assistant chief of Special Operations & Homeland Security, emergency dispatchers are encouraged to “not use the term ‘Ebola’ over the radio,” for fear someone listening would alert others and spread panic.
Health and emergency officials don’t want the Ebola virus to spread any more than the general population does. As they learn more about controlling the virus — which can only be spread by close contact with bodily fluids — workers can better prepare to handle a possible crisis here.
We just need to remember, in the meantime, that not everyone with a headache and fever has the Ebola virus — it’s most likely just the flu.