To the Editor:
Fearbola' is the recent term being used to describe widespread public fears of an Ebola outbreak in the United States. 'Fearbola' is said to spread easily through conversation or even from simply seeing images and videos about Ebola. While we in Canada might feel immune to Fearbola, sadly, we are not.
The only way to fight Fearbola is to provide responsible communications about how Ebola spreads and when Canadians need to worry. But that isn't so easily done in a communications environment that is often only a 140 character tweet away.
Recently frontline health professionals - primarily nurses - were quoted in the media saying that they are not prepared for an Ebola outbreak should one happen in an urban Canadian hospital. These comments are in direct contrast to those made recently by top level government and public health officials that Canada is ready. So who's right?
Providing effective communication is critical to ensuring healthcare workers feel informed and safe at work. Nursing union representatives have clearly expressed that nurses do not feel prepared for Ebola in their hospitals. Media stories have documented how personal protective equipment and training for frontline health workers hasn't been available in all hospital locations across the country.
Having senior public health leadership and elected officials talk in the media about having plans to manage Ebola if, and when, it arrives in Canada is insufficient. Frontline staff need to know the content of those plans and how the plans play out within their local environments.
In most cases, this short-lived "controversy" was resolved within a very short period of time because the two parties did something novel: they sat down and talked. Emergency drills have also taken place at some hospitals across the country, making many frontline staff and public health officials more comfortable with Canada's capacity to respond to an Ebola case should the situation arise. This is good news.
It is not unreasonable for frontline staff to be worried about what happens when Ebola arrives in Canada. They are the very ones, after all, who will be providing care to patients who test positive for the virus. If you look at who is getting sick in Sierra Leone, or in Dallas for that matter, it is frontline health staff and the friends and family members who provide care to their loved ones before they arrive at a health centre or hospital for treatment.
Why? It's because Ebola is not highly contagious until later in the course of the illness when contact with bodily fluids may occur - most commonly a concern for care givers. This helps us understand why people in close prolonged contact with Ebola patients may become infected.
Ebola isn't like the flu where you are contagious before you have physical signs of actually being sick. Ebola is highly infectious only when an Ebola patient has physical symptoms, expressed primarily through blood, vomit and feces. It is then that anyone who comes in close contact is at greatest risk of catching the Ebola virus.
So - at least within Canada - we should not fear the average stranger who may or may not have a fever. But we should take reasonable precautions and ask the right questions when caring for people who have nonspecific symptoms characteristic of Ebola. Those questions primarily begin with asking if that sick person has travelled to an Ebola region within the last 21 days. So don't be surprised if you are asked this question when you seek healthcare.
If you are sick and you know that you have undertaken such recent travel then it is in your best interest to seek early treatment and let your healthcare providers know right away about your travel so they can both protect themselves and others, and provide you with the best treatment available as soon as possible.
S. Michelle Driedger is an advisor with EvidenceNetwork.ca and Professor and Canada Research Chair in Environment and Health Risk Communication in Health Sciences, College of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba.
