CHICAGO — Fever? Headache? Muscle aches? Forget about Ebola — chances are astronomically higher that you have the flu or some other common bug.
That message still hasn’t reached many Americans, judging from stories ER doctors and nurses swapped this week at a Chicago medical conference. Misinformed patients with Ebola-like symptoms can take up time and resources in busy emergency rooms, and doctors fear the problem might worsen when flu season ramps up.
That’s one reason doctors say it’s especially important for patients to get their flu shots: Fewer flu cases could mean fewer Ebola false alarms.
“The whole system gets bogged down, even if it’s a false alarm,” said Dr. Kristi Koenig during a break at the American College of Emergency Physicians’ annual meeting.
Examples shared by those attending the meeting include:
• An Ohio patient who thought she had Ebola because her husband had worked in Dallas, but not with the Ebola patient.
• A New Mexico woman who sought ER testing for Ebola because she had visited Africa two years ago.
• Two Alabama patients who worried they were infected after traveling through an airport in Atlanta, the same city where Ebola patients were treated.
Flu and other airborne diseases can be transmitted by indirect contact with infected people. By contrast, the only way to get Ebola is through direct contact with blood, vomit and other body fluids from Ebola patients.
So far, flu activity is low nationwide and one death has been reported. Unlike Ebola, flu contributes to thousands of U.S. deaths each year and many more hospitalizations.
