JACKSON, Miss– Mississippi Department of Health officials held a press conference Wednesday to discuss the fears surrounding the Ebola virus.
“The only people that are at risk are those who have traveled in the last 21 days to Sierre Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.”
Those were the first words by Dr. Mary Currier, State Health Officer at the Ebola media briefing Wednesday.
Doctors Mary Currier, Thomas Dobbs and Paul Byers met with media to address the growing fears of Ebola across Mississippi.
“It’s not something we have to worry about in this state,” says Dr. Currier. Currier says the nurse in Texas getting sick has increased the fears.
“It is very scary when the healthcare providers are the ones getting Ebola,” says Currier. State Epidemiologist Dr. Thomas Dobbs says that the nurses got blood on their suits, and were possibly infected when taking them off.
“Getting infected blood from the suit onto your skin,” Dobbs said, “it is possible to infect yourself that way.”
But the health officials reiterate that Ebola isn’t contagious until the symptoms have appeared.
“The nurses in the hospital when the Ebola patient first entered the emergency room aren’t sick,” says Dr. Currier, “and family members living with him are not sick.”
Dr. Currier says it’s the ones that were there when the patient was bleeding and vomiting that were at the biggest risk.
So as travel season approaches, many fear the airports because of Ebola, especially since the Center for Disease Control started tracing and contacting the people who had flown with Ebola patients.
“They were using an abundance of caution,” says Dr. Currier, “they knew the people would be afraid, and that was the best way to get information to them.”
Airports have started monitoring temperature for passengers from international flights. Dr. Currier says that this will help catch another deadly illness.
“I think they’ll find people with the flu,” says Dr. Currier, “People die in Mississippi every year from influenza.”
The Mississippi Department of Health emphasizes that if you personally have not visited Sierre Leone, Guinea or Liberia in the past 3 weeks, you are not at risk for contracting Ebola.
