NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – “Well, we’re always ready, that’s one of the things we do in what’s called the universal precautions.”

Chances may be very low, but Dr. William Lunn, President and CEO of Tulane Health Systems says if Ebola were to spread to our state, the hospitals in Louisiana are all prepared and Tulane’s staff in particular is highly qualified.

“We have doctors that have worked in West Africa on the outbreak as part of the World Health organization and our plan involves everything from the proper screening of patients in entry areas in the emergency room to a detailed plan to isolate patients as we care for them and I think the CDC has been accurate to anticipate that we would eventually have a case as a possibility in the United states and now we’re seeing that,” says Lunn.

Just because Ebola is being treated in the U.S. doesn’t mean it will spread in the U.S. like it has in west Africa.

“It’s an enormous difference both in terms of staffing availability, in terms of supply availability, in terms of diagnostics as well as treatments. There is a lot that we do know and so we do know that it’s not spread through the air for example, we do know that people are only infectious when they’re actually sick from the disease,” says Dr.

Jeffery Percak. And they do know this isn’t the first or last time they’ll prepare for a worst case scenario.

“we always err on the side of caution and we treat people carefully whether it be a suspected Ebola case or HIV or some of the other infectious disease we deal with each day,” says Dr. Lunn.