California Health Officials Not Surprised About Possible Ebola Case In Sacramento
/ CBS Sacramento
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A day after word came out that a patient was being tested in Sacramento after possible Ebola exposure, health care officials are waiting for the results.
Officials have not released the sex, gender, age or what country the patient visited in West Africa, citing patient privacy laws.
But state health officials did say the person came from West Africa earlier this month before arriving in Sacramento, where the patient's symptoms caused staff to alert state and county officials.
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Dr. Gil Chavez and Dr. James Watt from the California Department of Public Health say blood samples were sent to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Tuesday, and should arrive on Wednesday.
"California is an international crossroads. people come here from all over the world, its not surprising that people come here from West Africa," Watt said. "We've already identified potential individuals that were exposed, those individuals have been told of potential exposure and to look for potential symptoms."
Health officials say they are taking a proactive approach, and if the results do come back positive, they say California already has a system in place.
"In California we have both a very strong healthcare system that has the capacity for isolation for potential patients and we have a very strong public health system who I think is very good at identifying and isolating patients," Watt said.
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