COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the Ohio Department of Health’s laboratory qualified to conduct initial testing for the Ebola virus, according to health officials who briefed reporters during a readiness exercise Tuesday.
The CDC has designated the state’s facility as a bio-safety level 3 lab which will conduct initial testing, though confirmation is still done by the CDC.
State healthcare leaders held a planning seminar and tabletop exercise yesterday at the state’s Emergency Operations Center on the Northwest Side to identify ways to improve Ohio’s Ebola preparedness.
“Out of an abundance of caution [the state agency] is working with local health departments, healthcare providers and other state agencies to be prepared. We are also educating people who may travel to the Ebola outbreak areas of West Africa about what they can do to protect themselves and others,” said ODH director Richard Hodges.
Hodges says the state has been helping hospitals, physicians and others since July to recognize Ebola symptoms, how to take patient travel histories to identify travelers to and from west Africa, and on how to treat possible Ebola patients while protecting other patients and staff.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell says the federal government could have performed “much better oversight” of the Dallas hospital where two health care workers caught Ebola after treating the first U.S. patient with the disease.
“Ohio’s health commissioners are already deeply involved in Ebola preparedness through the local health departments they lead. We support efforts to increase collaboration and coordination at the local and state levels to strengthen the state’s overall preparedness,” said Shelia Hiddleson, R.N., president of the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners board.
Ebola is spread through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of a person sick with Ebola, or through items contaminated with the person’s blood or body fluids. Ebola is not spread through the air, food or water.