Fairfax Station Schools: Ebola Concerns Leading to Travel Questions for Students

Fairfax County Public Schools will begin screening students for Ebola, according to a story in today’s Washington Post. The FCPS school system is one of the most diverse in the nation and among the 10 largest in the country with 187,000 students.

The school system, working with advice from thecounty health department, is also asking students who enroll at any FCPS school about travel to and from West African countries, where Ebola has claimed the lives of thousands.

Students who turn up sick at school health clinics and display any Ebola symptoms, primarily a fever, will be asked about their travel history, according to the story.

Symptoms of Ebola include, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC):

• Fever (greater than 38.6°C or 101.5°F)
• Severe headache
• Muscle pain
• Weakness
• Diarrhea
• Vomiting
• Abdominal (stomach) pain
• Unexplained hemorrhage (bleeding or bruising)

Symptoms may appear anywhere from two to 21 days after exposure to Ebola, but the average is eight to 10 days.

Recovery from Ebola depends on good supportive clinical care and the patient’s immune response. People who recover from Ebola infection develop antibodies that last for at least 10 years.

There are no cases of Ebola in the National Capital Region, according to Fairfax County. However, measures are in place to effectively deal with an Ebola infected person if one were to arrive in the region, according to Fairfax County emergency management officials.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the top health officials in the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia have said the risk of Ebola spreading widely in the United States is low.

A third person in Texas has been diagnosed with Ebola; she is a healthcare worker at a hospital where the country’s first Ebola patient died. That man traveled through Dulles Washington International Airport, where screening of travelers will begin tomorrow (Thursday). CDC is implementing enhanced entry screening at five U.S. airports that receive more than 94 percent of travelers from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

PHOTO of FCPS school bus from Patch archive