Tulsa Int'l Airport Officials Hold Meeting To Discuss Ebola, Travelers

Tulsa International Airport officials are making plans for what they would do if a patient with symptoms with Ebola symptoms traveled through Tulsa.

The airport emergency operations team met Wednesday afternoon to discuss its response to Ebola. EMSA and the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office also was in that discussion.

A spokesperson says no new plans came out of that, but they've had a plan in place for a long time to handle passengers who might have a serious, contagious illness.

There are no direct international passenger flights into Tulsa, but the chance an international passenger could connect in from Dallas or another hub.

Passengers are not reviewed in any way on arrival and the airport has no idea of from where they started traveling.

So they rely totally on the airlines for information.

"If an airline contacts us and says we have a passenger we're concerned is showing symptoms, we would contact the Tulsa Health Department and together respond to that situation,” Alexis Higgins said.

Higgins said the first step would be to isolate the plane on a runway. There's a plane designated for that purpose and a spot on the ground level of the terminal to isolate passengers once they're off the plane.

Ebola precautions in schools: Tulsa Public Schools on Wednesday sent a reminder to teachers and staff about Ebola.

The district reminder said no extra precautions are needed besides the normal practices with infectious people.

It emphasized the importance of hand washing to prevent the spread of most illnesses.

The district said the memo was sent out because so many employees were asking for the information.