Ebola Preparedness

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is a rare disease in people and nonhuman primates. The viruses that cause EVD are located mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. People can get EVD through direct contact with an infected animal (bat or nonhuman primate) or a sick or dead person infected with Ebola virus.

SUNY Upstate Role

The role of SUNY Upstate as a Frontline Healthcare Facility is to Identify, Triage, Isolate, Inform, and Transfer a PUI or confirmed case of Ebola. The hospital, CDC, and local health departments will work in coordination to transfer a patient to a national Ebola Treatment Center (ETC). Ebola treatment centers are prepared through federal funding to provide comprehensive care to people diagnosed with EVD for the duration of a patient’s illness.

Prevention and Vaccine

Ebola is extremely rare in the United States. If you travel to a region where ebola is endemic, you can:

• Avoid contact with blood and body fluids (such as urine, feces, saliva, sweat, vomit, breast milk, amniotic fluid, semen, and vaginal fluids) of people who are sick.
• Avoid contact with items that may have come in contact with an infected person’s blood or body fluids (such as clothes, bedding, needles, and medical equipment).
• Avoid funeral or burial practices that involve touching the body of someone who died from EVD or suspect EVD.
• Avoid contact with bats, forest antelopes, and nonhuman primates (such as monkeys and chimpanzees) blood, fluids, or raw meat prepared from these or unknown animals (bushmeat).
• Always wash your hands with soap and water before, and after consuming food or whenever they are soiled. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Ebola vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV (called Ervebo^®) on December 19, 2019. This is the first FDA-approved vaccine for Ebola. Typically, only persons meeting specific criteria (travel to endemic regions, BSL 4 labs, ETC staff ) are eligible for the vaccine.