If the Ebola virus reaches Lawrence, an area hospital is prepared to treat it.

Since the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Kansas University Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., has been making sure its staff is ready to care for patients stricken with the deadly disease.

“Everybody is interested in Ebola right now, and it’s just to remind nurses and physicians to be on the lookout for it,” said KU Hospital pathologist James Fishback. “It’s not like we’re expecting a huge influx of patients. But we could handle Ebola if one showed up.”

Two American aid workers were recently infected with the virus while treating people in Liberia, one of three West African countries where a recent Ebola outbreak has killed nearly 1,000 people. One of the Americans was flown to the U.S. for treatment on Saturday; another is expected back in the country Tuesday.

The Ebola virus is one of the world’s deadliest diseases, with a mortality rate of up to 90 percent. It is spread through the exchange of bodily fluids, so any American who brings the disease to the States would likely have been working with Ebola patients overseas. Treatment for Ebola is largely supportive, including things like blood transfusions and fluid replacement, though an experimental serum is currently being used on some patients.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released guidelines on what hospitals should look out for: fevers of greater than 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit with symptoms such as severe headache, vomiting and diarrhea.

At KU Hospital, doctors and nurses ask patients with infections what they do for a living and where they’ve been recently, to gauge whether they could have been exposed to Ebola. The hospital has about 20 negative-pressure isolation rooms for patients with infectious diseases.

“I can’t imagine there will be an influx of 20 Ebola patients into Kansas City,” said Fishback, noting that the outbreak is largely a result of unsanitary medical practices. “If I could bet on this, I would wager we wouldn’t even get one. I think it’ll be contained to Africa.”

So he says not to be alarmed, despite the way the story is being covered on TV news. He said Ebola is an extremely rare disease and that Americans should be more worried about tuberculosis and malaria, which kill millions of people annually.

“This doesn’t keep me up at night,” he said. “I don’t see it as a threat to the American public at all.”