PEA Follows CDC Ebola Guidelines

With Ebola headlining newspapers for months now, the spread of the disease has affected both Academy policy and the lives of some students from infected regions.

The Ebola outbreak started in Liberia, and has since claimed 4,000 lives in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as well as eight in Nigeria and one each in the United States, Senegal and Spain. Ebola has been contained in Nigeria, Senegal and Spain but still persists in parts of West Africa. Since American Thomas Duncan and the healthcare worker who treated him contracted Ebola in early October, there have been no further reported cases in the U.S.

While it is extremely unlikely that Exeter will be faced with Ebola, the Academy has plans in place in case such an event were to occur, and has reached out to reassure the Exeter community of their safety.

Despite general belief, Ebola is not easily spread as it requires close contact with bodily fluids. In addition, the entire nation has taken specific measures, learning from the cases in Nigeria and other African countries.

According to Dr. Myra Citrin, the Academy medical director, the school’s approach to Ebola is to follow the World Health Organization (WHO), American College Health Association, and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) guidelines. Their suggestions include closely following individuals who have travelled to affected countries such as Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and anyone who has been in contact with an infected patient. It is extremely unlikely that an Exonian will meet such criteria, but the Academy has taken it into their own hands to set up preventative and reactive measures.

Citrin recently sent an email out to the Exeter community about these plans. Citrin wrote, “With regard to travel, we would ask that any student, parent, faculty or staff member who has traveled to any of the West African countries battling Ebola outbreaks (currently Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea) notify me before coming to campus if this travel has occurred within the past 21 days.”

Citrin also advised all members of the Exeter community to avoid nonessential travel to areas experiencing an Ebola epidemic. If such travel is unavoidable, Citrin said, the school must be informed of their plans so that helpful suggestions can be provided to travelers on how to minimize risks, and what to monitor during and following travel.

Ebun Sofela, a new senior from Lagos, Nigeria, was in Lagos when the first Ebola patient was admitted to a nearby hospital late July. Sofela stated that the Nigerian government was aware of the disease’s prominence throughout West Africa and well prepared when the disease was brought into the the country. Despite this, Nigerians were initially still worried about how Ebola would affect their country.

“Well, we were all scared at first of how the government and how Nigeria would react to it, and how they would go about containing it.” Sofela said.

“Well, we were all scared at first of how the government and how Nigeria would react to it, and how they would go about containing it.” Sofela said.

Sofela left Lagos to come to Exeter six days after the first Ebola patient was admitted. Sofela’s family remained in Nigeria during the outbreak. Separated from her family during this time, Sofela said that she hoped “for the best” and that when Ebola was contained in Nigeria late October, the “best came.”

The chances of contracting Ebola in Nigeria now are slim, Sofela said, as the country is not bordered by the nations currently still affected by Ebola.

Even if Nigeria were not currently Ebola free, Sofela commented that her family would not be nervous about her returning, as Ebola was combated quickly by the Nigerian government, which effectively isolated and quarantined those who were in contact with Patrick Sawyer, the American citizen who brought in Ebola.

“[The Nigerian government] was quick; they were able to track all the people that were in contact with [Sawyer], put safety measures into place and educated people on the virus. It was being safe rather than sorry,” Sofela said. “We were prepared, basically.”

Upper Maddie Toole, who lives ten minutes from the Dallas hospital where the American patient Thomas Duncan and nurse Nina Pham had Ebola, will return home for Thanksgiving break. Toole was at Exeter when Ebola reached Dallas in September, and while her family took the precaution of staying away from the community in which Duncan lived, they are not worried about their daughter returning to Dallas over the break.

“If the problem had persisted in Dallas, I think preventative measures would have been taken as to not have new people exposed to it,” Toole said. “At first, it was scary, but Dallas is Ebola free now. All the people who treated him were tracked down.”