Oklahoma health officials say there are no cases of Ebola virus infections in the state — but that emergency response plans are in place in case a person is diagnosed with the disease.
State health and public safety officials joined Gov. Mary Fallin Monday to discuss how the state will respond should someone in the state be diagnosed with Ebola. A health care worker at a hospital in Dallas where an Ebola victim was treated before his death was diagnosed with the disease during the weekend. Late last week a patient who was being monitored with Ebola-like symptoms at Deaconess Hospital in Oklahoma City was confirmed not to have the virus.
"Hospital officials coordinated with the Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Center for Disease Control to ensure all proper protocols and safety precautions were followed," Fallin said in a statement Friday. "Should this have been Ebola, the disease would have been properly isolated and treated."
Fallin says state officials are taking the deadly virus very seriously. Oklahoma Health Commissioner Dr. Terry Cline says his agency is working with other agencies and hospitals in case a person infected with Ebola has to be quarantined and treated in the state.
Though officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have discussed the possibility of transporting a person infected with the Ebola virus to one of five hospitals across the United States, Terry Cline said Oklahoma is prepared to care for a resident should one be diagnosed with the disease.
“As it stands today, we are prepared to isolate and treat an individual in the state,” Cline said. “All of our preparedness mechanisms are in place. The work with the hospitals has been ongoing."
Cline made the statement following the joint meeting with Gov. Mary Fallin, her cabinet and other public health, safety and transportation officials at the state Capitol.
Cline said he felt confident that most of the state’s larger hospitals could respond and treat a resident with the virus. He said the state’s smaller medical facilities have the ability to isolate an infected patient temporarily, but added “more than likely that patient would be transported to one of the larger hospitals.”
“We would probably go with a larger hospital, which may have more capacity,” Cline said. “Large hospital systems are definitely equipped to do that.”
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