Santa Clara Health Officials Step Up Efforts To Deal With Ebola As Precautionary Measure
SANTA CLARA (KCBS)— Health officials in Santa Clara County are stepping up efforts to detect the Ebola virus and prevent it from spreading after the first Ebola patient was diagnosed in the U.S. last week.
Education has been a key to those efforts so far according the county's health department.
"We are planning," said Dr. Sarah Cody, health officer for Santa Clara County. "We're working with our hospitals and we're also doing planning with the public health department so that we can be ready to take care of someone should they have Ebola," she said.
Cody said there are a lot important issues surrounding treating this disease including information sharing.
Cody said they are on the phone constantly with local hospitals, going over an Ebola checklist provided by the Centers for Disease Control.
County Supervisor Dave Cortese said he hopes that Dallas, where an Ebola patient was treated was a wake-up call for health officials everywhere and a lesson in the importance of proper communication.
"We all know that with what happened in Dallas; Ebola is here on our shores now and the real question is if somebody's going to land here at San Jose International Airport and if we're ready for that," Cortese said.
Airports are the responsibility of the CDC's quarantine office, but Cody said that the city is working with them as well.