As Houston prepares to welcome FIFA World Cup fans, local health leaders are ramping up efforts to monitor potential Ebola risks.
On Thursday, health departments from the city of Houston and Harris County teamed up to launch a public dashboard. It shows the number of positive cases in the area and the status of those being monitored. As of this posting, it showed there are no positive cases of Ebola, but 17 people in Harris County are undergoing self-monitoring. So far, none of them have completed the 21-day observation period.
There is still some public concern, especially with the World Cup coming. Officials will update the dashboard weekly, working to provide timely data so the community is aware of any threats.
But just know that the risk to the public is low, primarily thanks to ongoing partnerships with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state health agencies and mandatory screening of passengers returning from Congo and other areas with Ebola outbreaks.
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“In order to get Ebola, you have to be in contact with some secretion from their body – blood, saliva, vomit, feces,” said Catherine Troisi with UTHealth. “If you are walking by them on the street, if you’re sitting next to them in the stands — first of all, they have to be symptomatic. If they are symptomatic, they’re probably not sitting in the stands.”
The dashboard provides suggestions on what to do if you believe you have been exposed to Ebola and more details on how it’s transmitted and the different stages of symptoms.
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Infectious disease experts say the expectation is always to monitor illness during major events. But it’s typically just large crowds of Americans, so this is just an extra precaution.
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