​Ebola hysteria soars to new heights in US schools

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Ebola- scared parents have sent a Maine teacher on mandatory leave after he visited Dallas where first victim of the virus in US died. In Mississippi parents pulled their kids out of school because of the principal’s trip to Zambia.

The Portland Press Herald reports that a Maine teacher was placed on a 21-day paid leave of absence in light of parents’ concerns for their children’s health. Community members feared the teacher may have contracted Ebola while on a visit to Dallas for an educational seminar.

The teacher stayed at a hotel 9.5 miles away from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where the first US Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan was diagnosed with the disease before he died, reports the Herald. Two Texas nurses are now being treated for the disease after contracting it from Duncan before his death.

Dora Anne Mills, former head of the Maine CDC and the current vice president for clinical affairs at the University of New England stressed that it is highly unlikely that the teacher is infected with Ebola. Ebola is not airborne disease and can only be transmitted through close contact with body fluids.

“Right now if I had a meeting in Dallas that I needed to take my children to, I would not hesitate,” said Mills to the Portland Press Herald.

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