Mississippi Valley State University News March 20, 2015 Miss. Department of Health Official Discusses Ebola at MVSU Mississippi Valley State University invited a director from the Mississippi Department of Health to discuss infectious diseases such as Ebola with students and faculty members from across the university. Jim Craig, the director of health protection for the Mississippi Department of Health, spoke to a crowd of students, staff, and faculty, from health, physical education, and recreation; social science, mass communications, Army ROTC, and other departments. Craig's talk was titled, "Ebola & Other High Containment Diseases as a Public Policy Issue." The Tau Upsilon chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha, which is the National Political Science Honor Society, sponsored the talk in conjunction with the MVSU Department of Social Sciences. Dr. Elizabeth Evans, assistant professor of public administration and rural public policy, presided over the event. During the talk, Craig surveyed the history of infectious diseases in the U.S. and around the world before going into the contemporary Ebola epidemic and the containment measures being taken within the state and around the country to help prevent the epidemic from proliferating on U.S. soil. He emphasized, however, that there is currently only one active case of Ebola in the United States. Also, he left the audience with several health facts. For example, despite the 21-day monitoring period for people at risk of having contracted the disease, most people will have begun to start showing symptoms in 10 days, Craig said; very few patients first become symptomatic during the 10-21 day period. He also wanted people to understand that only people who have traveled to countries affected by the virus are at risk of having contracted it themselves, so people returning to the U.S. from South Africa, for example, are not at risk of having contracted the virus. Even though Ebola has affected people for decades, the recent outbreak has inspired an increase in interest in finding a vaccine, Craig noted. Originally from Louisiana, Craig has 36 years of experience in emergency response, working natural and man-made disasters in both Mississippi and Louisiana. The Office of Health Protection, which he oversees, contains 67 regulatory programs that are designed to fulfill a major portion of the department's mission to promote and protect the health of all Mississippians. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.