The state has not relaxed its efforts to prevent any spread of the Ebola virus in Oklahoma, the chief of the state Emergency Preparedness and Response Service told theOklahoma State Board of HealthTuesday.
Director Scott Sproat said the state has shown it is more than adequate at preparing for potential health hazards.
His statement was confirmed by a report from The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which was also released Tuesday. The report identified Oklahoma as above average in readiness for a health disaster or emergency for a second straight year.
The Emergency Preparedness and Response Service, Sproat said, has been working with local health departments the last several months and with medical system partners from across the state to develop an Ebola plan Sproat said the key to an effective response to infectious diseases like Ebola is having quality, day-to-day systems already in place.
Oklahoma has added on to the CDC's travel monitoring protocol, Sproat said. After local health departments have been notified of an arrival of a potential case, they will then do their own assessment on the person and assign a risk level to him or her - no risk, low risk, some risk or high risk.
Those people are then monitored in-person at least once, based on the risk level they are assigned. Sproat said through this, nurses and other health professionals should be able to rapidly identify someone who may become symptomatic.
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