It hasn’t reached Knoxville, but if it does, UT is prepared.
The university, along with the Center for International Education and Office of Emergency Management, is monitoring the presence of the Ebola virus in the United States to prepare for possible
infections in the Knoxville area. The Student Health Center sent an email Oct. 29 alerting students of the university’s pandemic plan that has been created in case of an outbreak of a deadly disease on campus.
Spencer Gregg, a physician at the Student Health Center, is working in conjunction with the Knox County Health Department to ensure the risk of Ebola infection on campus and in the surrounding area remains highly unlikely.
“One of the things we’re tasked with at the Student Health Center is to be a part of those contingency plans (for diseases),” Gregg said. “When it has to do with an outbreak of a medical illness, we take more of a front role.”
While Gregg said the pandemic plan has a wide scope, he stressed his desire to avoid causing unnecessary panic amongst the local populace.
“What we’ve done at the university is to try to put the information out to the campus community that we understand that nervousness, that anxiety,” Gregg said.
The outbreak of the Ebola virus has claimed the lives of nearly 5,000 individuals in West Africa, while only one American has died as a result of the disease. The virus, which exhibits symptoms of fever, diarrhea and vomiting, is contracted through contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals.
“The type of response that we’re able to mount from a public health standpoint makes the potential for someone in the United States to contract Ebola to be exceedingly small,” Gregg said.
For Brian Gard, director of UT Knoxville Emergency Management, the plan was created primarily in response to public pressure.
“It was time to let (the public) know ‘we are watching this, we have a plan,”‘ Gard said. “If it was more of a concern, you’d be hearing more from us.”
Attributing much of the Ebola scare to media “hyping,” Gard views influenza as a far more immediate concern to students sitting in close quarters on a daily basis.
“Seasonal flu is always a problem for a place like a university,” Gard said. “Any place where people gather in large groups on a regular basis, seasonal flu is a problem.”
While Gard plans to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines in the case of both Ebola and the flu, he believes an emergency scenario for either disease to be unlikely.
While many Americans focus on the possible outbreak of Ebola at home, Gregg reminds his countrymen of those suffering abroad.
“What we really need to be thinking about is the countries that are truly affected by this outbreak,” Gregg said. “Our thoughts and prayers need to be directed in that area.”
For Tiffany Wood, a junior nursing major, the fear surrounding Ebola has been overstated.
“I do think the media has kind over exaggerated it,” Wood said of Ebola. “It could be a problem, but I think a lot of people do know to take precautions to prevent it.”
