Illinois to Start Ebola Telephone Hot Line

An Ebola hot line will be launched in Illinois later this week by the state department of public health. Illinois Department of Public Health Director LaMar Hasbrouck said the hot line is needed because Ebola cases are being seen in the United States.

“Although, to date, there have been no persons in Illinois under investigation for suspected Ebola that has warranted testing, we understand there is concern and people have many questions. IDPH will be setting up a hotline to help provide answers to questions the public may have, including who may be infected with Ebola, how is it spread and what can I do to avoid it,” Dr. Hasbrouck said in a statement Wednesday. “After this morning’s announcement of a second health care worker at a Texas hospital who provided care for the first U.S. Ebola victim preliminarily tested positive for Ebola, I would like to reassure Illinoisans that IDPH continues to work closely with hospitals and local health departments to provide guidance to quickly identify any potential cases of Ebola and contain any possible spread.”

On Thursday, temperature screening of some passengers begins at O’Hare International Airport. About 150 people enter the United States each day from or through Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea — Ebola hotspots — at O’Hare or one of the other airports where screening will be implemented — Newark, Atlanta, Washington and New York.

Some Chicago aldermen want the temperature screening expanded to all travelers from a foreign country landing at O’Hare.

A woman from Liberia who landed at O’Hare last week was quarantined by immigration officials at the Kenosha County Jail and monitored for Ebola symptoms. She was recently sent back to Liberia.

Also last week, a woman with flu-like symptoms visited Christ Hospital’s Emergency Room in Oak Lawn and told healthcare workers she’d been to Africa, setting off an Ebola scare. Officials later determined she was not telling the truth.

Augustana College in Rock Island recently put a Liberian groundskeeper on a paid leave out of “an abundance of caution” and concern that he and his family had been exposed to Ebola. The family is being and monitored by county health officials but they see no need to quarantine them.