Health
Chicago’s Ebola Response Plan Is More Than a Decade in the Making
Global health organizations are racing to stem an Ebola outbreak in central Africa that has already led to more than 100 suspected deaths, with the exact numbers of infections still unknown.
“This is an outbreak that is still rapidly evolving,” said Dr. Michael Lin, an infectious disease specialist at Rush University. “The numbers are still very difficult to nail down.”
Local health ministries in the Democratic Republic of the Congo identified the outbreak on May 15, and it was only two days later that the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern.”
Uncertainty still surrounds the outbreak, including how best to treat this specific strain of the virus. And while the immediate threat is still far away from Chicago, local specialists are working to ensure the city is prepared for all possibilities.
Many past Ebola outbreaks have taken root in rural areas, where risk of intercontinental spread remained low. That changed in 2014, when an outbreak hit west Africa, including some population centers that are well-connected to the rest of the world through busy airports.
“At the time, Dr. Lin and I were together (at a conference in Philadelphia) in October 2014 when the first Ebola case was identified in a Dallas hospital,” said Dr. Larry Kociolek, an infectious disease specialist and vice president of system preparedness, prevention and response at Lurie Children’s Hospital. “A week and a half later, Dr. Lin and I found ourselves at (Chicago) City Hall.”
Then Mayor Rahm Emanuel convened public health leaders, doctors, first responders and more, and the Chicago Ebola Response Network was born. And while Chicago has never confirmed any cases of Ebola, building that public health infrastructure has still paid dividends.
“Since that time, (the response network) evolved beyond Ebola and helped us address outbreaks related to mpox, COVID-19, measles and other serious pathogens,” Kociolek said.
In 2025, the Illinois Department of Public Health officially named Rush University and Lurie Children’s Hospital as Elite Special Pathogen Treatment Centers that could take in patients with suspected Ebola cases.
“In well-resourced hospitals, we think that we can do very well in terms of getting patients through something like Ebola virus,” Lin said. “But it certainly takes a lot of people and resources and equipment … and that’s what we’re prepared to do.”
Typically, Chicago O’Hare International Airport would set up enhanced health screenings for travelers passing through affected countries — in this case, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and South Sudan.
However, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that all flights from those three countries would be routed through Washington-Dulles International Airport, where screening resources are being focused.
But in the event a suspected case still makes its way to Chicago, there’s a plan in place, flowing from local and state departments of health down to the hospitals.
“If it’s a pediatric patient, I would be contacted,” Kociolek said. “If it’s an adult patient, Dr. Lin would be contacted. And we would activate our biocontainment units at our hospitals to ensure that we can receive that patient safely, promptly and provide them that supportive care.”
