If Ebola's a problem here, just imagine it in India

Craig Wright, a partner at outsourcing consulting firm Pace Harmon, said that a valid response to any such Ebola outbreak would be similar to a tsunami, "where access to facilities and resources within a region may be denied for an extended period of time."

But unlike a pandemic plan that calls on workers to deliver services from their homes, "this is not an assured model for an Ebola-infected area," said Wright. To remain effective, organizations must consider relocating service delivery centers to unaffected areas, he said.

Scott McPherson, the CIO of the Florida House of Representatives who has also been involved in state pandemic planning, said the real dangers continue to be influenza, the MERS coronavirus, Dengue Fever and a list of other diseases.

Ebola may bring pandemic planning for IT back onto the agenda, said McPherson.

Absenteeism is the big issue, and some of it can be triggered by decisions to close schools. "We have already seen an unwarranted overreaction by some schools due to hysteria about Ebola," said McPherson.