Ebola-fueled fear

CEDAR RAPIDS - Southwestern College in southern California went on lockdown Thursday after someone tweeted that a vomiting student recently had flown to the Midwest.

The Pentagon on Friday closed part of its parking lot and one entrance after a woman who had been in Africa threw up after getting off a bus.

A hospital worker who might have handled fluid samples from the country's first Ebola patient is quarantined on a cruise ship in Belize.

Even images of everyday airline passengers dressed in full protective gear have started surfacing on social media.

Outside of missionaries and reporters brought here specifically to receive treatment, the United States to date has reported three confirmed cases of Ebola, the deadly virus ravaging West Africa.

But experts in Eastern Iowa and elsewhere say another condition is infecting many - fear.

'People are often very affected by salient events - even if they are extremely rare,” said Jodie Plumert, professor and chair of the University of Iowa Department of Psychology. 'They tend to exaggerate the effects for themselves.”

It's like a plane crash, she said: Although they rarely happen, many people are afraid to fly.

'That seems to be going on for the Ebola situation,” Plumert said. 'We don't have an outbreak. There are three cases in the United States, and the chances of contracting it are infinitesimal for individuals in Iowa.”

But, she said, people still are afraid, whether they sit at the extreme end of the spectrum - donning protective gear to fly - or just have it in the back of their mind as they travel or think about health care.

And that kind of fear can affect a person's mood or behavior, Plumert said. If fear strikes on a larger scale, it can have more dramatic social or economic effects.

'If you get a lot of people who respond to something, you can get larger groups behaving in ways that are completely irrational,” she said.

One group of individuals who Plumert said has a bit more cause for concern are health care workers. And some University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics workers have told the local nurses union that the infection of two Dallas nurses who treated the nation's first patient has them worried.

They want more training, more information and more reassurance that Iowa is ready should an Ebola patient turn up in the emergency room or a nearby clinic. UIHC officials have stressed their preparations are evolving and ongoing, and that 'Ebola forums” now are being offered daily to any UIHC employees - regardless of their position or department.

UIHC Chief Nursing Officer Kenneth Rempher said the UIHC's epidemiology department has been fielding calls from other Iowa hospitals requesting support or answers to preparation questions. But, he said, the university hasn't seen individuals coming afraid they have Ebola.

'There has been no onslaught to the emergency department,” he said.

Turning point

Despite a seemingly constant stream of news emerging around how the first patient was mishandled in Texas to how one infected nurse was allowed to fly on a commercial airline, Rempher said he is confident in the ability of the country and community to control the spread of Ebola.

'For me, the turning point has been the last 36 hours,” Rempher said Thursday evening.

President Barack Obama has stepped up the national response, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has started taking a more conservative approach.

'I feel we are going in the right direction,” he said.

Officials with the departments of public health for Linn and Johnson counties said they too believe there is little threat to Eastern Iowans and little cause for fear.

'But it's very much on people's minds,” said Johnson County Public Health Director Doug Beardsley. 'People are asking me, ‘How's Ebola going?'”

Beardsley said he stresses to people that they're only at risk if they've been to West Africa or have been caring for someone with Ebola.

'The universe of people who should fear or should have some concern is very small,” he said. 'The risk to the general public is very very small. Even in Texas, where it's not a best-case scenario.”

Ebola to date has infected more than 9,000 people and killed more than 4,500 people in West Africa. But Heather Meador with Linn County Public Health said other infectious diseases - such as measles and malaria - have a much bigger and broader reach.

'For the general public, it's still important to remember that the two people who are sick are two people who took care of an Ebola patient,” Meador said. 'The general population is not doing that.”

The UI's Plumert said she expects fear will begin to subside among Americans if no new cases are reported and if the aid to West Africa begins to slow the spread of the disease.

She added that a vaccine or cure also would help.

'A lot of the fear probably has to do with the fact that there isn't a known cure,” she said. 'But people should be far more concerned about getting the flu. They should be concerned about getting flu shots, not Ebola.”