Cook Children’s Medical Center has completed its new infectious diseases critical care unit (CCU), meeting the need for a clinical facility dedicated to the treatment of patients with contagious illnesses.

The expansion ensures children with highly infectious diseases will be treated in the safest environment possible. The unit’s design and technology allow for the treatment of the sickest patients while also protecting Cook Children’s staff and the community from the spread of illness.

While the need for the unit first appeared on Cook Children’s radar several years ago when Ebola made its way to U.S. shores, the COVID-19 pandemic shined a light on its importance once again.

“COVID-19 overwhelmed us and we had a hospital full of kids with COVID during the Omicron surge,” said Marc Mazade, M.D., medical director of infection control and prevention at Cook Children’s. “But we only saw a modest number of kids with COVID-19 who really needed care in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), and most of them graduated out of the PICU pretty quickly in comparison to the much sicker adolescents with severe lung manifestations that we saw with the first two waves of COVID. We have to be prepared to deal with whatever comes and this new unit will help us to do that.”

The overall expansion for the preparedness of current and future pandemics includes the new six-bed infectious diseases CCU and a 24-hour solutions center with dedicated incident command space. In addition, a new 32-bed medical-surgical unit was added to expand Cook Children’s ability to meet the hospitalization needs of the growing communities it serves.

“I work for a system that pursues whatever is needed to improve a child’s health or save a child’s life,” said Mary Suzanne Whitworth, M.D., medical director of infectious diseases at Cook Children’s. “This new infectious diseases CCU is that next great opportunity and we are all thrilled to be a part of it.”

The pandemic showed us all how important it is to feel close to your family members, even if you can't be in the same room. In September 2020, a Cook Children's dad went viral for dancing in the parking lot during his son's cancer treatments. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions at the time, only one parent or caregiver could attend appointments with patients. 

These new infectious disease critical care units will make seeing family much easier with Virtual Connect – think FaceTime but for hospital rooms. Doctors and clinicians will also be able to visit with patients through Virtual Connect.

This will allow all “dancing dads” to connect with their child if they can't physically be at the Cook Children's Medical Center.

Family-Centered Safety

Since the start of the pandemic, much has been learned about how to maintain safety for staff and guests and expertly care for infectious disease patients now and in the future.

These best practices and protocols are standard design in the infectious diseases units, which feature specialized air ventilation systems, dedicated areas to put on and take off personal protective equipment (PPE), and technology that allows clinicians to closely monitor a patient without having to be directly at the bedside and other heightened protection measures to contain disease spread.

“These units will be used in an effort to place potentially contagious patients in one area,” Dr. Whitworth said. “The goal is to have everybody in one unit with every employee in that specific unit dedicated to being experts in proper PPE donning and doffing, patient and visitor flow and all of the aspects of interrupting the spread of an infectious disease.”

Maintaining a family-centered and supported environment also influenced the design of the new infectious diseases CCU. The decision to limit visitors to Cook Children’s Medical Center during the pandemic was a difficult one for everyone. While Cook Children’s patients have always been allowed at least one family member at their bedside during the outbreak, the spread of the virus demanded that administrators take steps to protect employees and vulnerable patients by restricting the visitation of others within the family unit.

“Segregating families is not who we are as an organization,” said Stan Davis, chief operating officer at Cook Children’s Medical Center. “We promote that when a child is sick and in our hospital, they need family at their bedside to help with treatment and healing. This unit allows our staff to feel comfortable that they’re in the right environment and have the right precautions to be comfortable treating patients, and it allows our community to understand that in addition to having the best nurses, therapists and support folks in the world, we have the right environment to keep families together.”

Each of the new infectious diseases CCU rooms will have a private bathroom, an accommodation not available in the previous critical care space used for contagious patients. This allows parents to stay in the room with their child as long as they would like and reduces the in and out traffic of a parent who may have the same illness as the child due to exposure. Dedicated entrances and exits to these units for staff and visitors will help protect the general hospital environment.

“It’s our responsibility to re-too in order to deal with situations and illnesses such as the re-emergence of SARS which resulted in lots of health care worker deaths in Canada, for COVID-19 variants already circulating, for Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), for avian flu, for new and old world hemorrhagic fever viruses, or for bioterrorism-related infections like anthrax,” Dr. Mazade said. “We’re excited to have the facility to do that better than ever.”

To open up space for the infectious diseases CCU, the Cook Children’s simulation lab was relocated. The simulation lab is an educational space where staff practice using new technologies, innovations and research. Last year, Cook Children’s was the first freestanding children’s hospital in the world to receive full accreditation through the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. The relocated lab allows for the future expansion and growth of this program.

System-Wide Solutions

The design of the new 24-hour solutions center was inspired by lessons learned about system-wide coordination and cooperation throughout the pandemic. Members of all 14 of Cook Children’s Health Care System’s entities worked together in the medical center’s incident command center to coordinate a consistent response to COVID-19 across the entire organization. This consolidation and cooperation allowed Cook Children’s to be nimble, flexible and quick to the ever-changing environment.

The new solutions center will operate year-round under the same premise of consolidation, coordination and consistency. It will be a one-stop shop for staff and guests of any one of Cook Children’s entities to report or request assistance with a facility or operations issue.

“The solutions center will be a single touch point for staff, patients and families, in terms of who they contact for assistance with an operations issue at one of our facilities,” Davis said. “The consolidation that will occur is that there will be a joint information system—a communication hub, if you will—that everyone in the system uses, and the issue will be triaged and assigned from there. It’s similar to what you see with a technology help desk.”

Inside the solutions center is a dedicated incident command center equipped with meeting space that accommodates proper social distancing protocols and communication technology that supports real-time global health updates for rapid, informed decision-making. This is a much-needed upgrade from the classroom that doubled as an incident command center during the height of the pandemic.

“We’ve learned with COVID-19 that hospitals can become overwhelmed rapidly,” Dr. Mazade said. “Planning for staff shortages, getting supplies, developing protocols, and getting our teams the most up-to-date information ASAP while combating misinformation is vital to everyone in the organization, to our community partners, and to our community. We need an up-to-date, world-class incident command station built for that.”

Cook Children’s Health Foundation’s Protecting your Tomorrows campaign helped make the expansion and improvements possible. Thanks to the generosity of donors, Cook Children’s is more equipped than ever before to care for children during a pandemic or outbreak of any infectious disease. For more ways to support our patients, staff and families, visit cookchildrenspromise.org. If you’d like to join the Protecting Your Tomorrows fundraising effort, contact Cook Children’s Health Foundation at 682-885-4105.

This campaign will help fund an expansion project that will ensure the precise combination of clinical facilities and operations are in place to treat the sickest children, while best protecting Cook Children’s staff and the community from the spread of infectious diseases.

The expansion will include the construction of a new 6-bed infectious diseases critical care unit (CCU) and a 24-hour solutions center with dedicated incident command space. An existing 20-bed unit will become a dedicated infectious diseases unit for the treatment of non-critical contagious patients such as those hospitalized for flu, COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other viruses. A 32-bed medical surgical unit will be added, and the hospital’s simulation lab will be relocated.

“I am beyond excited about the new infectious diseases critical care unit,” Mary Suzanne Whitworth, M.D., medical director of pediatric infectious diseases at Cook Children’s Medical Center, said. “It is humbling to work for a system like Cook Children’s that is always looking for the next thing needed to make pediatric health care better. After spending the last 25 years of my career here I must say, however, that I am not at all surprised that this is in the works. This is a system that never stops rising to the occasion.”

Family-Centered Safety

Since the start of the pandemic, much has been learned about how to maintain safety for staff and guests and expertly care for infectious disease patients now and in the future. These best practices and protocols will be standard design in the infectious diseases units, which will feature specialized air ventilation systems, dedicated areas to put on and take off personal protective equipment (PPE), technology that allows clinicians to closely monitor a patient without having to be directly at the bedside and other heightened protection measures to contain disease spread.

“These units will be used in an effort to place potentially contagious patients in one area,” said Dr. Whitworth. “The goal is to have everybody in one unit with every employee in that specific unit dedicated to being experts in proper PPE donning and doffing, patient and visitor flow and all of the aspects of interrupting the spread of an infectious disease.”

Maintaining a family-centered and supported environment also influenced the design of the new infectious diseases CCU. The decision to limit visitors to Cook Children’s Medical Center during the pandemic was a difficult one for everyone. While Cook Children’s patients have always been allowed at least one family member at their bedside during the outbreak, the spread of the virus demanded that administrators take steps to protect employees and vulnerable patients by restricting the visitation of others within the family unit.

“Segregating families is not who we are as an organization,” said Stan Davis, chief operating officer at Cook Children’s Medical Center. “We promote that when a child is sick and in our hospital, they need family at their bedside to help with treatment and healing. This unit allows our staff to feel comfortable that they’re in the right environment and have the right precautions to be comfortable treating patients, and it allows for our community to understand that in addition to having the best nurses, therapists and support folks in the world, we have the right environment to keep families together.”

Each of the new infectious diseases CCU rooms will have a private bathroom, an accommodation not available in the current critical care space used for contagious patients. This allows parents to stay in the room with their child as long as they would like and reduces the in and out traffic of a parent who may have the same illness as the child due to exposure. Dedicated entrances and exits to these units for staff and visitors will help protect the general hospital environment.

“Re-tooling to deal with the re-emergence of SARS which resulted in lots of health care worker deaths in Canada, for COVID-19 variants already circulating, for Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), for avian flu, for new and old world hemorrhagic fever viruses, or for bioterrorism-related infections like anthrax, is our responsibility,” said Marc Mazade, M.D., medical director of Cook Children’s infection prevention and control. “We’re looking forward to having the facility to do that better than ever.”

To open up space for the infectious diseases CCU, the Cook Children’s simulation lab will be relocated. The simulation lab is an educational space where staff practice using new technologies, innovations and research. Last year, Cook Children’s was the first freestanding children’s hospital in the world to receive full accreditation through the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. The relocated lab will allow for future expansion and growth of this program.

A new 32-bed medical surgical unit will be built to gain back beds repurposed for the infectious diseases unit and to expand Cook Children’s ability to meet the hospitalization needs of the growing communities it serves.

System-Wide Solutions

The design of the new 24-hour solutions center was inspired by lessons learned about system-wide coordination and cooperation throughout the pandemic. Members of all 14 of Cook Children’s Health Care System’s entities worked together in the medical center’s incident command center to coordinate a consistent response to COVID-19 across the entire organization. This consolidation and cooperation allowed Cook Children’s to be nimble, flexible and quick to the ever-changing environment.

The new solutions center will operate year-round under the same premise of consolidation, coordination and consistency. It will be a one-stop-shop for staff and guests of any one of Cook Children’s entities to report or request assistance with a facility or operations issue.

“The solutions center will be a single touch point for staff, patients and families in terms of who they contact for assistance with an operations issue at one of our facilities,” Davis said. The consolidation that will occur is that there will be a joint information system—a communication hub, if you will—that everyone in the system uses, and the issue will be triaged and assigned from there. It’s similar to what you see with a technology help desk.”

Inside the solutions center will be a dedicated incident command center equipped with meeting space that accommodates proper social distancing protocols and communication technology that supports real-time global health updates for rapid, informed decision-making. This is a much needed upgrade from the classroom that doubled as an incident command center during the height of the pandemic.

“We’ve learned with COVID-19 that hospitals can become overwhelmed rapidly,” Dr. Mazade said. “Planning for staff shortages, getting supplies, developing protocols, and getting our teams the most up-to-date information ASAP while combating misinformation is vital to everyone in the organization, to our community partners, and to our community. We need an up-to-date, world-class incident command station built for that.”

Construction for this expansion is currently underway and slated to be complete in 12 months. If you’d like to join the Protecting Your Tomorrows fundraising effort, contact Cook Children’s Health Foundation at 682-885-4105.

In the year 2000, measles were declared eliminated from the United States. This occurred because there was a 12-month period where no measles cases were contracted here, making the disease no longer native to the United States.

I hear this question often in my office and its logical based on the fact that measles was eliminated:

“We haven’t seen outbreaks of these diseases for years. Do we really need to continue vaccinating for them?”

The answer is yes and it's exactly because of what we've seen in the past two weeks. Measles are only a plane ride away. We live in a society with global mobility. People fly in and out of countries where measles continue to be a huge problem and then fly back to the United States. Measles are highly contagious via droplets from coughs and sneezes. In addition, people are contagious before they start to show symptoms. (Contrast that with another infectious disease we dealt with recently (Ebola) that requires blood or body fluid contact and is not contagious until there are significant symptoms.)

Continued vaccination programs protect our citizens when they travel abroad. It protects our citizens when travelers return to the United States. It helps to control outbreaks when they do occur.

Another common questions centers around the severity of these diseases.

I pulled this quote from an interview with The Today Show in Australia and Dr. Sherri Tenpenny:

“I don’t believe that measles, mumps, rubella or chicken pox are routinely fatal illnesses. If you ask any person over the age of 50…they had all those illnesses when they were children and growing up.”

There are so many false assumptions mixed in with this statement:

1. You cannot ask a person in their 50s that died from one of these diseases how serious it is.

2. Even if not fatal, the complications associated with these diseases can be very serious.

3. This completely discredits the suffering of any family member of someone who experienced complications from these diseases.

Just look at the stats. In the United States, prior to the introduction of measles vaccine in 1963:

• 3-4 million people had measles each year
• 400-500 died
• 48,000 were hospitalized
• 4000 developed encephalitis (brain swelling)

These complications don’t happen as much in the United States, but do continue to occur in areas where vaccination rates are not as high. There were 145,700 measles deaths worldwide last year. This is a 75-percent drop since 2000 due to efforts to make vaccinations available to children all over the world.

Continuing to vaccinate for measles is important because measles are serious and only a flight away ... and lately, even in our own backyard. 

This is part 2 of Dr. Smith’s series on measles. For more information about measles vaccination and herd immunity, click here.

About the author

Justin Smith, M.D., is a Cook Children's pediatrician in Lewisville . View more from The Doc Smitty at his Facebook page. He attended University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School and did his pediatric training at Baylor College of Medicine. He joins Cook Children's after practicing in his hometown of Abilene for four years. He has a particular interest in development, behavior and care for children struggling with obesity. In his spare time, he enjoys playing with his 3 young children, exercising, reading and writing about parenting and pediatric health issues.

Fever, headaches, joint and muscle aches, weakness, fatigue, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain and lack of appetite.

Over the next few months, many children will have these symptoms and many parents will, and should, call their Cook Children’s pediatrician because of how their child’s feeling.

Unfortunately, many parents will assume the worst … Ebola. But the chances of that being a reality are extremely low. While knowing it’s not likely to be Ebola may be a relief, it’s important to remember that Ebola is not the only dangerous virus on the horizon for our children. The symptoms listed above are much more likely to be the flu.

Investigation of 25 outbreaks of Ebola over 38 years has shown that only direct contact with a person with Ebola would cause someone to become infected. Right now, there’s no approved vaccine to limit the epidemic in West Africa.

On the other hand, influenza can be deadly. The 2013-2014 flu season led to 108 pediatric deaths in this country. The flu is spread readily through the air by small droplets which can be infectious to someone near a person who is coughing and sneezing and is much more easily acquired and easily prevented through vaccination.

Please make sure to get your children the flu vaccine and parents should get them too! ASAP. Both injection and nasal mist vaccines are effective.

I recognize that there are many different opinions and stories out there. I want to simply be transparent with you about my thoughts as a physician who spends a lot of time communicating with patients via social media and other platforms.

I know with the spread of the infection in the United States there are a lot of concerned people. I think it raises the level of concern for all of us, so I completely understand that. After thinking, I continue to feel strongly that the risk of Ebola spreading to the general population is still extremely low based on the following thoughts:

1. Thomas Eric Duncan was home for 2-3 days with Ebola. There were many contacts during that time; some considered "high" and some considered "low" risk. Even during that time when he was ill, none of these contacts contracted the virus despite some of them undoubtedly providing pretty intimate care for him. At this point he was sick, but apparently not as sick as he became during his time in the hospital.
2. The 2 secondary cases both occurred in nurses who were actively, involved in very close care of Mr. Duncan when he was at his sickest. We know that Ebola is not contagious until people are showing symptoms and we know that they become more contagious as they get sicker.
3. We will have to wait and see as more details come out, but there are many reports that the staff at the hospital were not following the guidelines for infection containment that we know are effective at containing spread, perhaps through no fault of their own. Again, I want to hear the full story on this before I place judgment. These issues tend to be revealed over time.
4. So far, the only diagnosed Ebola cases in the United States have either been people who were in affected areas and now 2 people with known, direct exposure to those people. I believe that if the transmission pattern for Ebola had changed, we would have seen many, many more cases at this point.

Keep these things in mind as you read the information that comes across during the next few days. You should make your own decisions about how to protect your family, but these thoughts are based on the information we have on hand.

Our previous articles on Ebola:

• Ebola in Dallas
• Are you concerned about Ebola?
• 4 reasons not to fear Ebola
• How to talk to your kids about Ebola

We’ve spent a lot of time recently talking to you grownups out there about all of these conditions in an effort to inform you, but also hopefully to calm your nerves.

But what about your kids? It’s easy to understand why they would panic, especially if they hear of school-aged children being kept home or other kids simply afraid to go to school in fear of Ebola. And it’s all happening in Dallas, so close to where many of them live.

So, what do you say to them?

A lot of it has to do with their age and how much they can comprehend, according to two of our licensed child psychologists at Cook Children’s.

Joy Crabtree, a licensed psychologist for Cook Children’s Behavioral Health in Southlake, said the most important thing parents can do is be there for their children. If your children come to you with questions about anything scary in the news, reassure them that you love them and are there for them. Tell them the chances of them getting a disease such as the Ebola virus is rare. For example, one of the main symptoms of Ebola is fever yet, reassure your child that unless they or someone in their family has travelled to West Africa, or come in contact with anyone from that region, their fever is no more dangerous than any other time they had a fever. We get fever from a lot of things and recover. Answer the questions they ask you, but don’t go off on tangents that will increase their fear. Make sure you know the facts and check them with a reputable source. Don’t drift into other areas that may cause your children discomfort.

Your older children may not want to talk to you about the issues of the day, try to put up a brave front or be blissfully unaware. You know your children better than anyone. If you feel your children are old enough and/or mature enough, and you feel they have heard about it anyway, you might consider bringing up recent events from the news to get their opinion, and to offer reassurance and support.

“For older children, they may have a few initial questions based on what they’ve heard on the news or from friends at school,” Crabtree said. “Make sure that you are giving them accurate information. Make sure to reassure your child, but also let them know that bad things do happen in life. We have to be careful and cautious, but we also can’t live in fear of the unknown. We have to live life to the fullest. You might also let them know that just like there are people (doctors, nurses, etc.) whose job it is to take care of kids, there are people, such as the public health department, whose job it is to take care of communities. They let us know when there is danger and what to do.

Lisa Elliott, a licensed psychologist and clinic manager at the Cook Children’s Psychology clinic in Denton said to keep younger children, elementary age, away from the news and don’t talk to them about something like Ebola unless they ask you. There’s no need to bring up a fearful topic to children, unless it’s for their own good.

For older children, Elliott said ,“There has to be limits to the news and it has to be age appropriate. The older kids can become fixated on bad news sometimes. Help your older children process what they are hearing and make sense of the news. But at the same time, limit them on the amount of news they are watching or reading about. They don’t need to dwell on the issue.”

As for your kids or yourself, Elliott adds it’s a good idea for the entire family to get away from the news and spend some family time together.

After all, the most important thing is to be there for your children.

Related links:

• Ebola in Dallas
• Are you concerned about Ebola?
• 4 reasons not to fear Ebola
• Enterovirus: What we know now
• The flu season
• Whooping cough makes a comeback
• Breaking news: Chikungunya case confirmed in Tarrant County
• Breaking Tarrant County news: Measles alert

For more information

Cook Children's Behavioral Health services provides a broad range of care that focuses on children from 3 years through 17, and their families. We also have some limited services available for children age 2. As part of family-centered care all of our professionals are qualified both through education and experience to work with children who have behavioral and emotional challenges. Our psychiatrists are board certified in child and adolescent psychiatry and our psychologists and therapists are all licensed independently in Texas.

Unfortunately, the outbreak has hit a little bit closer to home as a traveler from Africa has died from Ebola in Dallas and a health care worker in the hospital has tested positive for the disease.

I wanted to take this opportunity to provide some thoughts on the situation:

1.Remember that the inital patient was a traveler from Africa and the second case was someone with close contact with the patient. No transmission has occurred through casual contact in the community.

2.Medical professionals across the country are aware of the concern of Ebola in returning travelers and should be asking about travel in patients with fever. If you know someone who has traveled to these areas who develops fever, encourage them to seek medical care and notify their provider or emergency room upon arrival (better yet, have them call ahead).

3.We have now treated multiple patients in the United States with success in helping them recover.

4.Remember to be cautious about how you talk about Ebola with your children. There is a significant amount of misinformation in our communities and especially on social media. What you tell your child matters as they will spread the message you send to their classmates. Widespread fear among the children in our area is unnecessary and could be harmful. If you want accurate information about the virus, check out our previous posts here and here.

We also spoke with Dr. Donald Murphey, medical director ofInfectious Disease at Cook Children’s, and he provided some wise perspective on the situation:

“Texas is a multinational country. We have new Texans coming from all over the US and all over the world … At Cook Children’s Medical Center and other large health care organizations, we are asked to care for patients with diseases that are not native to our area. We are asked to provide care for patients coming from West Africa that are ill. These patients often have fever and in most cases have malaria. They need high quality and prompt medical care. Now, we have had one case of Ebola in the US where a man was hospitalized in Dallas and later died. He, and others, can be cared for safely. We may go through a time when we are all concerned about Ebola in patients, even with minor illness, but Ebola will be contained in the United States."

About the author

Justin Smith, M.D., is a Cook Children's pediatrician in Lewisville . He attended University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School and did his pediatric training at Baylor College of Medicine. He joined Cook Children's after practicing in his hometown of Abilene for four years. He has a particular interest in development, behavior and care for children struggling with obesity. In his spare time, he enjoys playing with his 3 young children, exercising, reading and writing about parenting and pediatric health issues.

The

I understand the fear. Ebola is a terrifying disease. Symptoms start off similar to flu and progress to liver and kidney failure, followed by internal and external bleeding and then often times by death (about 60 percent of the cases).

So, I get it, it’s scary. The way people die from Ebola is very unpleasant which makes it even scarier. But it shouldn’t be the scariest infectious disease to us. Here are three reasons why:

Reason No. 1 – It’s actually not that contagious.

Ebola is transmitted via blood and body fluids. Contrast that with measles and flu, which are spread via droplets. Obviously, doctors are using extreme caution when treating patients with Ebola and I agree with that. However, the likelihood of catching Ebola from being in the same room with a person with it is not that high. If someone with measles or flu coughs or sneezes near you, it’s very possible that you will contract the disease.

Hepatitis A is another virus that can spread quickly because it is spread via a pathway called the fecal-oral route (yes, it’s as gross as it sounds). It causes vomiting and in severe cases, liver failure. Outbreaks of Hepatitis A often occur when a food worker unknowingly spreads the disease by handling the food with contaminated hands.

Meningococcal meningitis is another illness that commonly spreads quickly and anyone who has been in the room with an infected person is at risk. Outbreaks used to occur commonly on college campuses prior to the introduction of universal vaccination. Health care workers who are exposed to a patient with meningitis have to undergo treatment to try to prevent contracting the disease. So remember that when the person next to you in a room looks sick; it’s probably not Ebola, but it could be any of these other scary things.

Reason No. 2 - People with Ebola are not contagious until the affected person is sick.

Because patients with Ebola are very sick, they are unlikely to be walking around infecting everyone in their path. There will not be people walking around looking fine, unknowingly spreading the disease to everyone they meet. This is not the case for many other infections. See my example for Hepatitis A above.

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is another disease where many infected people (usually adults) can walk around contagious for weeks at a time coughing the bacteria on everyone they meet. Pertussis is not that serious in adults (aside from an occasional broken rib here and there), but it can be deadly in small babies. Despite being sick, many people with flu suck it up and trudge into work or school because they think flu isn’t that big of a deal. The problem is that while one person may not have trouble with flu, they may have contact with small infants, pregnant women or older adults who can have significant complications from it.

Another disease that affects 1/3 of sexually active teenagers and adults is human papilloma virus (HPV). Most often boys and girls who carry HPV do not know they are infected and thus spread it to their sexual partners. HPV by itself is a troubling problem, but even more troubling is the fact that HPV is the leading cause of cervical cancer (about 99.7 percent of cases).

Reason No. 3 - Ebola is not that common and has not been transmitted in the United States.

The world-wide, all-time death total from Ebola sits in the thousands … the world-wide death toll from measles was 122,000 in 2012 alone. Ebola has a very high rate of death and severe illness, much more so than measles, but because measles is much more common it affects many, many more people. There has never been a case of Ebola transmitted from person to person in the United States. There have been over 600 cases of measles in the United States thus far in 2014. What about deaths? Fortunately, there were no deaths from measles, but in 2012 there were 52 deaths from the flu just in pediatric patients. It’s a simple reminder that we sometimes forget how dangerous things are when we have not heard about them for a while.

Now what?

If you aren’t convinced that many of these other infectious diseases are a more immediate concern for you than Ebola, I understand. When things are new and sound scary they tend to take over your mind. But after reading all the points I’ve made above, know there is something you can do to protect your child from the other diseases I’ve mentioned …

Every single bolded disease has a vaccine! While vaccines are not perfect and getting a vaccine in some cases does not protect you 100 percent, they significantly decrease your chances of contracting any of these diseases. In many cases, if vaccines don’t completely prevent the disease, they make the case milder and less serious. If you agree with my concerns about these other diseases, give your child the best chance by having them vaccinated.

I hope I’ve addressed all of your questions or concerns. Maybe, you still have questions about the diseases mentioned here or the vaccines to fight them? If so, please talk to your pediatrician.  

I am getting many questions about Ebola virus. Most of the direct questions center on the fact that two Americans are returning back to the United States after being diagnosed.

Here are some of the questions I have received (and where I heard them):

1. What is Ebola virus? - Media

Ebola is a virus that causes fever, weakness, sore throat, headache and muscle pain. It can and often does progress to cause kidney and liver problems as well as internal and external bleeding. This bleeding can, and unfortunately often does, lead to death. There is no specific treatment for Ebola, but patients often require intensive monitoring in an ICU setting to control their symptoms and bleeding.

2. How fast could an outbreak of Ebola virus spread? – Abilene friends

Cases of Ebola virus, to this point, have happened in accidental lab exposures and in sub-Saharan Africa. Because of the fact that Ebola is transmitted via blood and body fluids, outbreaks tend to start because families have the responsibility of burying their own family members who have died from Ebola. No one knows how long Ebola virus can live inside a human body thus making this the likely cause of sustained outbreaks in these areas.

Secondly, patients with Ebola are not contagious until they are demonstrating symptoms. This is why anyone returning from Africa who develops fever should seek medical attention immediately. If people who could have potentially been exposed are isolated quickly, it is unlikely that we will ever have a case of Ebola transmitted in the United States.

3. Is there a vaccine available to protect our kids? – Clinic patients

At this point, there is no reason to worry about your children and Ebola virus. We had families keeping their children from traveling within the area for a field trip last week due to their fear. This is an unfounded concern at this point … avoid traveling to sub-Saharan Africa and you should be covered.

Regarding a vaccine for Ebola, there are trials going on to develop vaccines but they are not likely to be used in the United States as the risk of infection here is low.

4. Should we really be flying someone who we know has Ebola to the United States? – Social media

The answer is definitely, yes! There is no risk to the general public from Ebola virus. Ebola virus is transmitted through blood and body fluids. The doctors at the CDC and Emory University are specifically trained to treat patients but avoid contact, which could lead to the infection spreading. Treating Dr. Brantley and Nancy Writebol in the United States gives them their best chance of survival.

Kent Smith is an attorney and the associate general counsel of the legal department at Cook Children’s. He’s also a friend of Dr. Brantly. It’s interesting to get his perspective on this and I thought you might want to see it …

About the author

Justin Smith, M.D., is a Cook Children's pediatrician in Lewisville . He attended University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School and did his pediatric training at Baylor College of Medicine. He joins Cook Children's after practicing in his hometown of Abilene for four years. He has a particular interest in development, behavior and care for children struggling with obesity. In his spare time, he enjoys playing with his 3 young children, exercising, reading and writing about parenting and pediatric health issues.