MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County health officials say they will be ready for ebola, in the unlikely event the virus is detected in the area.
On Friday County Public Health Director Christine Schuyler sent out a media release, saying that she and her staff have been working with the State Department of Health and local hospitals and physicians to ensure they are ready if a suspected Ebola case is present in the county.
Schuyler said that county health officials have done a tremendous amount of planning and have established protocols. She adds that the county will continue to work with all partners and make adjustments as necessary in the coming weeks and months.
As part of the statewide plan, health care providers have been instructed to ask about recent travel to West Africa and to assess symptoms, which include fever, severe headache, vomiting, diarrhea and unexplained bleeding and bruising. If these symptoms are present, patient is to be isolated and lab tests ordered.
Ebola is not airborne. To catch the virus, a person must have close physical contact with the bodily fluids of a person who is sickened by the virus or the dead body of an Ebola victim.
For more information, log on to www.cdc.gov. or www.health.ny.gov.
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