The Public Health Strategy for Protecting Our Communities from Ebola

Public health agencies across the nation are working diligently to monitor travelers from Ebola-affected countries to protect the health of the public. In Colorado, the traveler monitoring program set up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began in August of 2014. Travelers from the three Ebola affected countries (Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone) are closely monitored as soon as they arrive in the United States at one of five international airports (New York, Virginia, Atlanta, Chicago or Newark). While Jefferson County Public Health, in conjunction with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), continues to monitor a small number of travelers who have returned from Ebola-affected countries, there are currently no suspected or confirmed cases of Ebola in Jefferson County.

View the JCPH Active Traveler Monitoring Program Fact Sheet

CDC/CDPHE and JCPH maintain efforts to ensure we have the most effective strategy possible to respond to a potential case of Ebola in Jefferson County. CDPHE and all of our County partners are strongly committed to protecting your health. Ongoing local public health activities include:

• Tracking and monitoring travelers returning to Jefferson County from affected West African countries;
  
• Supporting hospital preparedness efforts with education and information as they plan and prepare to medically support an individual with suspected or confirmed Ebola;
  
• Improving and refining County-wide protocols to effectively handle a suspected or confirmed case of Ebola in Jefferson County.

Download the JCPH Ebola Disease Fact Sheet

For more information about Ebola, please view the CDC web site .
Information is also available on the CDPHE web site.

For more information contact Jefferson County Public Health’s Emergency Preparedness Program at
303-271-8394 or email Christine Billings at mailto:cbilling@jeffco.us.

2014 West Africa Outbreak

The Guinean Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation of Sierra Leone, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Liberia, and the Nigerian Ministry of Health are working with national and international partners to investigate and respond to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. As of August 22, 2014, the suspected and confirmed case count was 2,615.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola HF) is one of numerous Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers. It is a severe, often fatal disease in humans and nonhuman primates (such as monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees). Ebola viruses are found in several African countries. The first Ebola virus was discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since then, outbreaks of Ebola among humans have appeared sporadically in Africa. Public health professionals are using contact tracing to attempt to stop the disease from spreading. View this CDC infographic to learn more about contact tracing.

Visit the CDC web page for more information on Ebola and the current outbreak, please visit: http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/guinea/index.html