Get Ready Mailbag: Get the facts on Ebola

Welcome to another installment of the Get Ready Mailbag, when we take time to answer questions sent our way by readers like you. Have a question you want answered? Send an email to getready@apha.org.

I’ve been hearing about Ebola in the news. What is it? Should I be worried about catching it?

Ebola is in the news lately because there is an outbreak occurring in four countries in West Africa: Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. There have been more than 1,600 cases and about 880 deaths in the outbreak. It doesn’t pose a significant risk for the general public in America, however.

Graphic courtesy CDC

Ebola is caused by a virus. The virus spreads between humans by contact with body fluids — such as blood, urine and sweat — or through objects that have been contaminated with infected fluids, like needles. Ebola can’t be spread through air, food or water. The only way to get it is to be in direct contact with someone who is experiencing symptoms.

Symptoms of Ebola can include fever, headache, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting and abnormal bleeding. There is no cure. However, early health care including hydration can increase the chance for survival.

The people most at risk for Ebola are health care workers who care for infected patients. In Atlanta, doctors at Emory University Hospital will be caring for two American patients with Ebola who caught the disease in Africa and are being transported here. The doctors will be using practices such as isolation to prevent the spread of the disease to health workers and other hospital patients. The hospital has a special isolation unit to treat patients who are exposed to serious infectious diseases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also working to make sure that Ebola is not carried to the U.S. via travelers, assisting with screening and education, providing guidance to plane personnel and advising Americans not to travel to the affected countries.

So, in short, if you’re a member of the general public here in the U.S., you don’t really have to be worried about catching Ebola. You’re much more likely to catch the flu.

For more information, read CDC’s Q&A on Ebola.

To assist public health workers responding to the Ebola outbreak, APHA has made the Ebola and Marburg virus chapter of its Control of Communicable Diseases Manual available for download for free.*

*Editor's note: The PDF is secured against alteration only and can be saved to your device, printed and shared. If you are asked for a password when accessing the PDF on your mobile device, please try the following:
1) Make sure you have the free Acrobat Reader app installed on your device
2) Tap or refresh the password screen until you see text at the top or bottom of the screen that says "Open in...."
3) Select the link for "Open in..." and then choose the Acrobat Reader app.

Donate blood today, save a life tomorrow: June 14 is World Blood Donor Day

Blood is always in demand. But after a disaster, that demand increases. Recent natural and human-made emergencies in the U.S. — from the Oklahoma City-area tornadoes to the Boston bombings — have shown the importance of a strong blood supply.

In fact, the American Red Cross must collect at least 17,000 pints of blood per day to assist patients at more than 3,000 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country. Health providers must be prepared to respond to emergencies with blood products 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood, so it’s important we do our part. Donating blood is a vital part of preparedness.

June 14 is World Blood Donor Day, an annual observance that reminds people around the globe to give the gift of blood. Globally, about 92 million blood donations are collected annually, but more are needed.

No matter where you live, donating blood is important. Find out how you can donate blood or host a blood drive via the American Red Cross. For a list of World Blood Donor Day events, visit the World Health Organization website.

H7N9 influenza: What you should know now

Dr. Michael Jhung,
medical officer for the influenza division,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

A new flu virus has recently emerged in China, putting health officials around the world, including those at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on alert. Today’s guest blog post by Dr. Michael Jhung, medical officer for the influenza division, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provides a status report of flu activity as of April 18, 2013, and tells you what you need to know about this novel virus that to date has led to 87 confirmed illnesses and 17 deaths.

Not long after a newsworthy 2012-2013 influenza season, flu is in the headlines again. On April 1, the World Health Organization first reported three human infections with a new influenza A (H7N9) virus in China. Since then, additional cases have been reported. Most of the people reportedly infected have had severe respiratory illness and, in some cases, have died.

Fortunately, there are currently no reported cases of H7N9 in the U.S. or anywhere outside of China. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we are following this situation closely, coordinating with domestic and international partners, taking routine preparedness steps and sharing frequent updates.

Here are some things you should know about the current H7N9 situation:

1. It is still early in the response and there is a tremendous amount that we don’t know. Our information is likely to be updated and change frequently as we learn more about H7N9. To stay informed, please visit our H7N9 page.
2. There are no confirmed cases of human infection in the U.S., and there is currently no evidence that the virus can spread in a sustained way from person-to-person. Other than advice for travelers or people who are ill, CDC is not making any additional or special recommendations for U.S. public action specific to H7N9. Travelers should continue to visit CDC’s Travelers' Health page on H7N9 for CDC’s current travel recommendations.
3. After the first human infections with H7N9 were detected in China, Chinese authorities detected H7N9 viruses in poultry in the same area where human infections have occurred. China is investigating cases, their exposures and their contacts closely. Many of the humans infected with H7N9 are reported to have had contact with poultry. The current working assumption is that most human infections with H7N9 have resulted from exposure to infected birds or contaminated environments. The extent of the outbreak in poultry is still being assessed, but China has reportedly begun removing birds from live markets. Shanghai is currently taking extra precautions by closing down its live poultry markets for the time being.
4. On Thursday, April 11, CDC received the first H7N9 virus isolate from China. Since this H7N9 virus is new and has pandemic potential, we are using the virus isolate from China to develop a candidate vaccine virus that could be used to make a vaccine if one is needed.
5. CDC also is using the virus isolate from China to:
• Develop a test kit for detecting H7N9 infections in humans.
• Test for the presence of antibodies against the H7N9 virus in human blood samples. This will allow CDC to see if some people already have immunity against this virus.
• Test to see whether existing antiviral drugs —i.e., Tamiflu and Relenza — will work to treat people who become ill from H7N9.
6. The investigation in China has not revealed any sustained — or ongoing — human-to-human spread of this virus, but non-sustained human-to-human spread of bird flu viruses has occurred in the past, most notably with H5N1. It’s likely that some limited human-to-human spread of H7N9 will occur. Sustained, community transmission is needed for a pandemic to start.

Visit cdc.gov for more information on human-to-human transmission. 


About the author:
Michael Jhung, MD, MPH, MS, is a medical officer for the Surveillance and Outbreak Response Team in the Influenza Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Jhung received his Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from University of Michigan in 1989 and his Master of Science in Bioengineering from the University’s College of Engineering in 1994. He completed his doctorate of medicine from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 2002, and his Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from University of Michigan’s School of Public Health in 2004.

Dr. Jhung began working with CDC’s Division for Healthcare Quality Promotion in 2005 as an Epidemic Intelligence Officer, where he conducted surveillance for healthcare-associated adverse events and rapidly responded to requests for assistance with investigation of health-care associated infections. Dr. Jhung graduated from the EIS program and joined Influenza Division’s Surveillance and Outbreak Response Team in 2009, where he has applied his expertise to responding to influenza outbreaks, providing scientific training of Fellows and staff, and contributing key findings to CDC’s pandemic preparedness plans.

Learn how to save lives on World Hand Hygiene Day

Today is World Hand Hygiene Day, an event created by the World Health Organization to educate people about hand-washing to stop the spread of infectious diseases in health care settings.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out a short video to teach everyone about hand-washing in hospitals. We know that hand-washing is important for health providers like nurses and doctors, but it’s also important for hospital patients and visitors too!

Check out the video and learn how you can save lives in a hospital, just by washing your hands — and reminding your nurses, doctors and other health workers to do the same!

And don’t forget to check out our hand-washing fact sheets for more information!