State keeps eye on 13 students for Ebola

The Arkansas Department of Health is monitoring the health of 13 college students who recently arrived in the state after traveling from African countries affected by Ebola, the department's director said Friday.

So far, none of the students has reported any symptoms consistent with Ebola infection, the director, Nate Smith, said.

"There was one who had a cold and got over it," he said.

Smith briefed lawmakers Friday at a joint meeting of the state House and Senate's Health, Welfare and Labor committees on Arkansas' response to the Ebola outbreak that has affected countries in West Africa.

The first known person to become infected with the disease during the current outbreak, a 2-year-old girl in southeastern Guinea, fell ill on Dec. 2 and died four days later, Smith said.

Since then, the disease has killed more than 1,500 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria and sickened about 1,500 others, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Early symptoms include fever, fatigue, dizziness, headache, nausea, diarrhea and a sore throat. Later symptoms include internal bleeding and organ failure.

The disease is spread by person-to-person contact through broken skin or mucous membranes with blood or other bodily fluids or secretions from infected people, including bedding or other items soiled by an infected person, according to the World Health Organization.

As part of its response, the Arkansas Health Department asked the state's colleges, universities and high schools to monitor any students who have returned from the four affected countries within the past 21 days -- considered to be the maximum amount of time after being infected that a person will begin to display symptoms.

Of the 13 college students who have been identified so far, 12 had returned from Nigeria, and one had come back from Liberia, Smith said.

Officials haven't identified any high school students who recently traveled to the affected countries, Smith said.

The college and university students have been asked to take their temperatures twice a day and report any symptoms to their schools' student health center staff, Smith said.

Health Department spokesman Cathy Flanagin declined to say which colleges or universities the students attend, citing patient privacy concerns.

Smith noted that the Health Department has a history of working with colleges and universities to prevent the spread of another disease: tuberculosis.

All the state's higher education institutions require international students to be tested for tuberculosis, he said.

Treatment is required for those who have active tuberculosis and encouraged for those with the "latent" form of the disease, meaning they haven't developed symptoms and are not contagious.

Smith said the Health Department also has distributed information on Ebola to hospitals and ambulance workers across the state.

Each of the state's local health units has posted signs asking patients to report to medical staff if they have traveled to one of the affected countries within the past 21 days. Those signs have also been distributed to hospitals, he said.

"We have infection control procedures that are available even in our small hospitals here in Arkansas that can very effectively prevent the spread" of the disease, Smith said.

"Where Ebola is dangerous is when people come in, and they're not recognized, or there's some delay before they're identified as having Ebola."

Another concern, Smith said, is stigmatizing people from West African countries.

"It adversely affects people, many of whom might have no risk of disease transmission, but it also diverts our attention and resources from effective prevention activities," Smith said.

Smith said the chance of the disease spreading in the United States is small. Patients become contagious only after developing symptoms. The virus is spread through contact with bodily fluids, organs or contaminated objects, such as medical equipment.

No one has ever been infected with the disease in the United States although two health workers who were infected in Liberia were flown to Emory University in Atlanta for treatment earlier this month.

Both health workers have been released from the hospital and are no longer considered contagious.

Based on the history of other similar viruses that also have not spread inside the United States, "my conclusion is that the risk of secondary infection in the U.S. is minimal," Smith said.

But "that doesn't mean we're not preparing for it," he said. "It means I don't anticipate a widespread outbreak of Ebola, even if we did have someone come into Arkansas with the disease."

Smith said the West African outbreak is the largest since the disease was discovered in 1976, with more reported cases and deaths than those from the other outbreaks combined.

The survival rate depends on the level of medical care provided, Smith said. With the proper care, he said, survival can be as high as 50 percent.

Sen. John Cooper, R-Jonesboro, asked about the danger posed by meat from wild animals, known as "bush meat," smuggled from West African countries to the United States.

"I'm not sure how big an issue that is," Smith said. He noted that the U.S. government has strict rules on bringing meat into the country.

"Just about anything that can be smuggled has been smuggled," Smith said. "I don't know that that's a large issue here in Arkansas."

A Section on 08/30/2014

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