ficials found themselves battling two diseases: Ebola itself and what one Dallas doctor called “infectious fear.” “We underestimated the primal fear of infectious disease stoked by the swirl of antiscience beliefs, me- dia exploitation, and political theater,” John T. Carlo, MD, chair of the Dallas County Medical Society’s (DCMS’) Emergency Response Committee, told physicians at the TMA 2015 Winter Conference in January. The former medical director for
John Carlo, MD Battling “infectious fear”
WHEN THE EBOLA VIRUS infected three patients in Dallas last fall, local physician leaders and public health of-
Dallas County Health and Human Ser- vices, Dr. Carlo was in the eye of the Ebola storm after Thomas Eric Dun- can and two Dallas nurses who treated him were diagnosed with Ebola. Amid the confusion, panic, and anger that followed, Dr. Carlo and other DCMS leaders counseled elected officials and local physicians and spent hours in news media interviews trying to calm a frightened public. In many ways, Dr. Carlo says, it could have been much, much worse:
• Presbyterian Hospital might not have been as prepared as it was to care for Mr. Duncan.
• Because they lived together in a small apartment, Mr. Duncan’s fiancée or one of her three small children might have contracted Ebola.
• More than two of the nurses and hospital staff who cared for Mr. Duncan might have become sick.
Any of those eventualities, Dr. Car- lo said, “would have changed the pos- ture and the tempo” of the entire Dal- las community’s response to the scare. Throughout the two-month cri- sis, Dr. Carlo said DCMS remained
“a trusted voice for physicians.” The county society used public events, news outlets, social media, and its own bully pulpit to stress the scientific truths about Ebola: It is a very deadly disease that is very difficult to catch. When word spread that some prac- tices were turning away patients who
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PHOTO BY JIM LINCOLN
April 2015 TEXAS MEDICINE 19
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