The University of Wisconsin is monitoring students who travelled to Ebola affected regions in various parts of West Africa to guarantee safety among students and staff.
Students who travelled to Nigeria, Liberia, Guinea, Senegal and Sierra Leone were contacted as they got back onto campus premises.
In all, five students recently traveled to Ebola-affected regions, and none of them were ill or showed signs of being ill, according to Craig Roberts, a clinical assistant professor for population health sciences and epidemiologist with University Health Services.
Roberts said the university sent emails and phone calls out to those students whose records indicated they traveled to the affected regions.
“We asked them to provide details of their travel itinerary and that we would individually follow up with them,” Roberts said.
He said they also provided the returnees with links to sites that provided more details about the deadly Ebola outbreak. Roberts said the local and state health department staff are also helping with the monitoring process.
Gwen Borlaug, a coordinator of the healthcare-associated infections program in the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, was one of the people that contacted student returnees. She said students got forms and instructions to monitor their temperature and watch out for Ebola-like symptoms for 21 days. She said the students were then instructed to return the forms to the University Health Services.
“It’s good to note that all the students we contacted gave us their full cooperation,” Borlaug said.
The World Health Organization reported late August there have been almost 3700 Ebola cases in the three countries most affected — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — with about 1850 deaths.