The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is encouraging students and universities to rethink travel plans to West Africa, specifically trips to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
In response, Warwick Arden, provost and executive vice chancellor of NC State, issued a statement about implementing new policies to prevent any threat of Ebola.
“Protecting the health of the NC State community is a top priority,” Arden said. “To help keep our faculty, staff and students safe, we’re implementing these travel restrictions in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention travel warnings and recommendations.”
The CDC also advised universities to postpone all study-abroad trips to the areas where Ebola cases have been confirmed until further notice, according to the CDC website.
NC State Study Abroad programs that are planning to visit Africa in the spring have not been postponed or canceled as of now, according to Mick Kulikowski, the assistant director for news and national media coordinator at NC State.
NC State has no current programs in the affected areas, nor does it plan on creating any in these areas. Presently, no NC State students are performing independent study or graduate research in the Ebola-afflicted regions of West Africa, according to Kulikowski.
NC State’s Student Health Center is currently monitoring the spread of the disease. A link to the CDC’s website that gives the most update information on the Ebola spread has been posted on the Student Health Website’s homepage.
In light of the recent outbreak, school systems such as the Wake County Public School System have begun monitoring students more closely.
Wake County recently started asking new students as well as students who have been absent for an extended period if they have recently traveled to Africa. If they reply yes, the students’ parents are contacted for more information about their travel, according to the News & Observer.
Daniel Venditti, a junior in wood products, said he thinks the increased monitoring by Wake County Public Schools as well as NC State is not unwarranted.
“Students being out of school for an extended period of time does raise some questions, and I think it is a good idea to look into that,” Venditti said.
Jennifer Armour, a junior in sports management, said she is unsure of the university’s decision and thinks the school should cancel all study abroad programs to Africa.
“Sending students to Africa now could be problematic for the university,” Armour said.
Venditti said he agreed with the precautions being taken.
“I think every school should be doing this, across the country,” Venditti said. “Better to be safe than sorry.”
Although it admitted there are no potential risks in traveling to countries that have not had a confirmed case of Ebola, the CDC said the circumstances could change rapidly as the disease continues to spread in West Africa.
Student Health services and the NC State Study Abroad office are continuing to closely monitor the CDC’s website for any and all updates on the spread of Ebola virus.
According to the CDC, an outbreak like this could take a minimum of six months to die out. Until then, the new screening policies are likely to continue.
The first case of Ebola in the United States was confirmed in a laboratory in Dallas, Texas, on Sept. 30. The CDC has now confirmed a total of four cases of Ebola in the U.S. Symptoms take anywhere from 2 to 21 days following exposure to the virus to appear, though the average is 8 to 10 days.
The Ebola virus, named after the river where it was discovered, was first identified in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Believed to originate from bats, it is an extremely deadly disease with a 90 percent mortality rate. Ebola is contracted through the direct contact with any bodily fluids, such as blood, of a symptomatic infected person, according to the CDC.
