Upcoming Flu Clinic to Help Officials Prepare for Ebola

By Cassidy McCarns Next week, Branford High School will be holding a clinic to offer flu shots to the community. The clinic, which is offered every year, will also be used to test the health department’s ability to react and address a possible Ebola outbreak at the high school. Although at the moment Ebola has no vaccine or medication, this clinic will provide health officials an opportunity to assess their plan in case of a local Ebola outbreak, health officials said. The World Health Organization called the outbreak of Ebola “the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times.” Most recently, a student at Yale who was in contact with Ebola has been hospitalized with Ebola-like symptoms. According to Barbara Naclerio of the East Shore Health Department, the emergency plan for a local Ebola outbreak is based off of the district’s emergency plan for smallpox. At this point if Ebola were to become an issue in Branford, the biggest concern of the health department would be to isolate those who are infected. Along with the infected, those who have been in contact with this person would be categorized as either high risk or low risk. She said that despite frantic reactions from the public, Ebola is in fact more difficult to spread then the flu because it can only be transmitted through direct contact from bodily fluids and not through the air or water. The advice passed on from the health department to BHS students and Branford residents is simply to wash hands regularly and use Purell (which kills the virus). For more important information about Ebola click here.