Tulsa Doctor: 'Average Tulsan Shouldn't Worry About Ebola'

With the diagnosis of the second case of Ebola in Texas and the first time it's been transmitted on U.S. soil, Oklahoma healthcare workers are on high alert.

Health officials in Dallas announced Sunday a nurse who had been treating the first victim contracted the deadly virus.

Tulsa health care workers are getting prepared just in case the virus spreads to Oklahoma, but local doctors say there is a minimal risk to the average Tulsan.

The message to average Tulsans from Emergency Management Medical Director, Dr. Jeffery Goodloe, is that the average Tulsans doesn't need to worry about Ebola.

"We have literally hundreds of committed people that are spending their entire work days and nights making sure we have the best answers possible for Ebola," Goodloe said.

He said the greatest concern is for first responders and health care providers.

Health officials are trying to determine when 26-year-old Nina Pham contracted the virus while treating Dallas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan.

10/12/2014 Related Story: Dallas Health Care Worker Tests Positive For Ebola

The Centers for Disease Controls said using fluid resistant gowns, along with masks and gloves will stop the spread of the deadly virus.

"They don't have to be the spacesuits that some people have seen or thought about, at least that is the best knowledge that we have today. We certainly are prepared in Tulsa and our EMS system that, if those guidelines change, we will know about it not in a number of days but hours,” said Goodloe.

Every ambulance and hospital in Green Country already has the proper personal protective equipment - referred to in the medical community as P.P.E.

Goodloe said health care providers need to use the buddy system to put on and remove the equipment. That's the only way to ensure the vulnerable areas of the body are covered.

"We also think that removal of that P.P.E. is just as important as the proper donning or the placing of that P.P.E. and that certainly an area that we are concentrating some educational efforts here locally as well,” he said.

It is still unclear if the Dallas nurse diagnosed with Ebola had help removing her P.P.E.

While all the attention has been on Ebola, Goodloe wants people to protect themselves against the Flu by getting a Flu shot. He said more people will die from the Flu than Ebola.