In an effort to address the NYU community’s questions and concerns about Ebola, faculty and staff from the NYU School of Medicine, the Department of Biology and the Student Health Center will gather for an information session on the disease at 6 p.m. in Hemmerdinger Hall today.

The event will feature professor of biology and neuroscience Carol Shoshkes Reiss, several faculty members from the School of Medicine and associate vice president and head of the Student Health Center Carlo Ciotoli. The event will feature a question and answer. For those who cannot attend,  the discussion will be livestreamed and archived.

Reiss said she felt a need to give the NYU community information on the disease after news of New York’s first diagnosis of Ebola on Oct. 23. She said she hopes the event will help increase knowledge of how the disease is spread and treated and how the university is prepared to handle any potential outbreak.

“We will be covering the virus, where it comes from, the way it causes disease, the developing new anti-Ebola drugs, the response of the medical community in Africa and here at NYU, as well as the Student Health Center and Wellness Program,” Reiss said.

NYU spokesman John Beckman said this event is an opportunity for experts to discuss issues impacting the community.

“There has been a lot of apprehension about Ebola, and so we should all be grateful that these faculty members — experts in their fields — are volunteering to educate the NYU community about the Ebola virus, to provide thoughtful guidance and understanding and to help us replace anxieties with knowledge,” Beckman said.

Email John Ambrosio and Valentina Duque Bojanini at [email protected].