Jen Rini

The News Journal

The state Division of Public Health spent most of Monday quelling fears of an Ebola outbreak in Delaware following a report that a child from Liberia was treated at Bayhealth Kent General Hospital in Dover for possible exposure to the infectious disease on Saturday.

Ebola is a very difficult disease to contract, said Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the state Division of Public Health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most outbreaks occur in remote areas of Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.

"Please let me reassure you there is no case of Ebola in Delaware," Rattay said.

To date, Liberian-born Thomas Eric Duncan from Dallas, Texas, is the only confirmed patient in United States.

Delaware hospital officials did little more to ease the public. They would only refer to CDC guidelines when asked to describe their in-house precautionary methods to avoid spread of the disease and would not elaborate.

Hospitals and primary health care providers should diligently ask patients with suspected Ebola symptoms, like a fever, for their travel histories in the last three weeks, Rattay stressed in a conference call with reporters.

The division issued an alert to health providers on Friday, strongly advising them to follow the specific guidelines from the CDC, such as placing a suspected patient in isolation.

Other precautions require that anyone who enters a patient room should wear gloves, eye protection, a face mask and a gown. Additionally, hospitals should use disposable equipment as much as possible and limit procedures with needles.

All five hospitals in Delaware have been following the CDC guidelines, said Wayne A. Smith, executive director of the Delaware Healthcare Association.

"Every Delaware hospital is prepared to treat any potential Ebola patient as they would any infectious disease patient. They are all full-service, they have staffs who are prepared to deal with infectious disease" Smith said.

Rattay said the division has been working with higher learning institutions and the state Department of Education since the start of the school year to screen students.

"We want to let Delaware parents know, be reassured, that we do not have a case of Ebola virus here in Delaware. We also want them to be aware of how it is transmitted," Rattay said.

Ebola is spread person-to-person through direct contact with body fluids like blood, urine, sweat, semen, breast milk and feces.

That means it can be spread through cuts, sexual intercourse or if infected body fluids get into a person's eyes, nose or mouth.

It is not traditionally airborne, but if an Ebola patient sneezes on someone and the mucus touches that person's eyes, nose or mouth, the disease can be transmitted. The same goes for the saliva of an Ebola patient if they cough on someone.

The disease begins like many infections, with a fever. As the infection progresses, symptoms such as sudden headaches, severe vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea persist.

What makes Ebola uncharacteristically violent and unique is unexplained hemorrhaging – for example a small scratch cannot stop bleeding or severe bruises will not fade.

Ebola was ruled out almost immediately for the Kent County child that had been evaluated on Saturday, Rattay said.

The child, originally from Liberia, had recently traveled to one of the affected West African countries, but had not come in contact with any Ebola victims and is past the 21-day disease incubation period.

That incubation period is crucial since Ebola is only contagious when symptoms are present.

The CDC also ruled out a laboratory Ebola test since it has been 23 days since the child has departed from West Africa, Rattay said. Since the infection is past the incubation stage, the child's family is not at risk for infection.

"The symptoms that this child presented are not uncommon symptoms," she said, noting the child had a low-grade fever and mild abdominal pain.

"We are seeing a lot of different viruses out there that cause these general symptoms. It really is important that when someone presents with the symptoms that are seen in Ebola that travel history is ascertained."

The child no longer has symptoms and will be released from the hospital "soon," Rattay said. Bayhealth would not comment further on the case.

An earlier version of this story misspelled Dr. Karyl Rattay's first name.

Contact Jen Rini at (302) 324-2386 or jrini@delawareonline.com.