Syracuse University students, faculty and staff should avoid traveling to countries in west Africa that have been affected by the Ebola virus, Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina and SU Health Services Medical Director Spiro Tzetzis said in an email to the SU community on Friday afternoon.

In the email, which discussed the university’s monitoring and preparation efforts for the Ebola virus, Spina and Tzetzis noted that Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone are all Warning Level 3 countries as designated by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC has strongly advised people to avoid nonessential travel to these countries and any SU students, faculty and staff who plan to travel to these countries must consult the Office of the Provost to determine whether the trip is necessary or not, Spina and Tzetzis said.

Any members of SU who have travelled to a CDC Level 3 country or come in to contact with someone who has, must also consult University Health Services, Spina and Tzetzis said. Health Services will then administer a brief telephone assessment to determine the next steps.

The university will continue to follow CDC guidelines and will continue to update the community should situations change and warrant more information or new procedural changes, Spina and Tzetzis added.

There have not been any confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola in central New York, Spina and Tzetzis noted in the email.

Earlier this month, SU disinvited Pulitizer Prize winning journalist Michel du Cille from campus after university officials learned that he had recently been covering the Ebola crisis in Liberia. He was scheduled to come to campus for the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ Fall Workshop and had been symptom-free for 21 days when he was disinvited. Twenty-one days has been the accepted incubation period to determine that a person exposed to Ebola most likely does not have the virus.

Du Cille blasted the university for disinviting him, accusing officials of choosing “to pander to hysteria and perhaps xenophobia.” University officials stood by the decision, saying student safety was their first priority.

 

 

Published on October 31, 2014 at 4:39 pm

Contact Anna: almerod@syr.edu