With the first Ebola case in the U.S. confirmed in Dallas, Texas last week, public health officials in Alaska are on alert. But even in Unalaska, with its huge transient workforce from all around the world, they say chances of an outbreak are low.

That’s because the city’s seasonal workers typically don’t have strong ties to West Africa, which is where Ebola cases are centered right now.

Michelle Cochran is the human resources manager for Unalaska’s biggest seafood processing company, UniSea. She says their African workers mostly come from the eastern part of that continent -- countries like Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

She doesn’t expect that to change as the company recruits workers for the processing A season in January. Still, she says the company’s working up Ebola screening procedures just in case.

Westward and Alyeska Seafoods couldn’t be reached for comment for this story.

Meanwhile, officials at the Iliuliuk Family & Health Services clinic say they’re reviewing federal and state guidelines on what to do if signs of Ebola crop up.

But Michael Cooper of the state’s infectious disease prevention program says it’s difficult to contract Ebola without direct contact with a sick person’s bodily fluids.

"It’s much different than, you know, influenza or pertussis or measles on an airplane or in transport, for sure," he says.

The complicating factor is how long it takes for patients to develop symptoms. They’re not contagious until that happens -- and it can take up to three weeks from exposure to get sick.

Cooper says Anchorage's Ted Stevens International Airport and other American airports always screen passengers for signs of illness. But right now, they’re relying on the affected countries to keep Ebola patients from flying out.

"The vast majority of airports, there’s no ebola-related screening for when people are arriving," he says.

Very few workers fly into Unalaska at this time of year anyway. But Cooper says the outbreaks in West Africa aren’t likely to end before A season starts. He says it could be at least a year before the virus is considered contained.