The PSI School Health Department has created this Ebola Information site as a PSI resource to provide the schools and the school communities we serve with credible information concerning the school’s role regarding the Ebola scare.

We will keep you updated on this critical and constantly changing health situation through this web site. We are also regularly informing our PSI Health Services staff that serve your schools with the latest information available.

Also found below is an informational letter sent to all schools served by PSI concerning information for parents, basic procedures, etc.

Please feel free to contact us at any point to help serve your health care needs.

Sincerely,

The PSI Health Service Team

[email protected]
1-800-841-4774 Ext 228

Expert Resources:

• CDC- Main Website
• CDC- Signs and symptoms of Ebola
• CDC- Ebola Fact Sheet
• See PSI letter to Colleague and Partners at the bottom of this web page for helpful information
• Summit County Board of Health- Main website with Ebola Information
• Cuyahoga County Board of Health-  Ebola Information
• Whitehouse Briefing on Ebola- Link or Watch Video Below

PSI Colleague Letter (sent on October 17, 2014)

October 17, 2014

Dear Colleague:

Thank you for choosing PSI as your trusted partner in school health. We are continuing to update our partner schools with accurate and current Ebola related information as it impacts Ohio’s schools.

We are in contact with local public health experts in addition to frequent consultation with the Ohio Department of Health and the CDC. The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) is developing protocol specific to school health. We will release that information as soon as it is available.

As you know, this situation is continually changing. We will update you as we learn of information that pertains to our schools as well as when the ODH releases their recommended protocols for school health. PSI follows the guidelines and protocols from these expert agencies.

Below are Thursday’s (Oct 16) recommendations issued by the Ohio Department of Health School Nurse Consultants regarding suspected cases of Ebola in schools:

• Ask any student/parent exhibiting symptoms of Ebola (http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/symptoms/index.html) if they have traveled in the past 3 weeks. If so, ask where (country and city), and the dates.
• If the student has traveled to Guinea, Sierra Leone, or Liberia the local health department should be contacted immediately for direction.
• Additionally, contact the parents of the child and his/her school administrators.
• PSI can help facilitate these calls for you, if you wish. Just call our office and we will contact the appropriate health department.
• The student in question should be placed in a room by him or herself, with no visitors allowed.
• If the student is to be transferred to a hospital, alert the emergency staff (including the paramedics) of the situation as well as the receiving hospital.
• The health department will ask to begin a list of close contacts while at school.  The list should consist of anyone within a 3 foot area of the student.  (This list should include friends and any contacts in areas of the school the student has been, for example, the classroom, lunchroom, bus, etc.)

Please remember, at this time there are no known cases of EBOLA in Ohio.

Summit County Public Health has released an excellent list of important considerations that parents need to know about Ebola that includes:

• A risk for Ebola only comes when you come into close contact with a person suffering from Ebola.
• Being near someone who is sick with Ebola doesn’t mean you’ll get infected. The disease isn’t contagious like the flu or common cold. You have to be in contact with a patient’s body fluids or blood, and you have to have a break in your skin or have the fluids touch your eyes, mouth or nose.
• Ebola does not live long on surfaces or outside someone’s body. Soaps, detergents and hand sanitizers are effective at killing the virus. Keeping your area clean and washing your hands will help prevent infections.
• You and your children are really only at risk if you have traveled to West Africa, where Ebola is currently spreading.

Again, as soon as we have updated information from the expert agencies in public health, we will notify you.

We are continuing to update our PSI Health Staff on all of these important considerations and guidelines from these expert agencies.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions.

Yours in health,

The PSI School Health Administrative Team
MS,LC, DO,LS