On Wednesday, the Summit County Health Department will make a presentation on steps taken to prepare for an Ebola outbreak in Utah. While some may say that’s a bit overboard, we believe it’s appropriate. The\u00a0CDC says there will be between 550,000 and 1.4 million cases in West Africa by the end of 2015. RMS, a risk management\u00a0firm estimates there will be between 15 and 130 cases of Ebola in the U.S. by the end of this year (mostly medical personnel returning\u00a0from\u00a0Africa). So, now is the time to prepare for the eventuality of someone in Utah having the disease.<\/p>\n
Please don’t get us wrong, we don’t expect some MorganFreeman-DustinHoffman<\/a>\u00a0event but we think preparedness is important. We all know how Park City\u00a0parents act when a stray peanut is found at school. How is the Park City public going to behave when an Ebola case pops up in SLC?<\/p>\n So, we think having a policy and process in place not only shows forethought but could help in the case of\u00a0another, more transmittable\u00a0disease, like Avian flu, that could become a problem in the future. While it’s likely that these plans won’t be needed for Ebola, it shows that our Health\u00a0Department has contingencies in place, should the unexpected happen.<\/p>\n We encourage you to take a look at the plan<\/a>. It’s pretty well thought out.<\/p>\n