The Connecticut Department of Public Health sent an advisory to local health departments, hospitals and other health care providers regarding the recent Ebola outbreak in several Western African nations.
The response DPH received was good news: no suspected cases of the killer, for which there is no cure, have been identified in the state.
The DPH advisory provided updated guidance from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention about Ebola virus transmission, who should be screened for Ebola virus infection, how to submit appropriate clinical samples for diagnostic testing and recommendations for hospital infection control measures.
Dr. Jack Ross, Hartford Hospital’s chief of infectious diseases, says there is nearly zero chance the Ebola virus, for which fruit bats are considered to be the likely host, will make its way to the United States.
Tuesday afternoon a second American aid worker, afflicted by the virus, arrived in Atlanta from Liberia for treatment. Both are said to be improving after being giving an experimental serum which, until now, had only been tested on monkeys.