Although there are no Syracuse University students who come from areas affected by the Ebola outbreak, the Onondaga County Health Department and the university are taking precautions to ensure students do not have to face the threat of Ebola.

The health department’s medical director, Dr. Quoc Nguyen, said the department is not monitoring people coming from Africa. His department gets notified if a student is coming back from one of the three countries that have dealt with the Ebola virus — Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Those students are then told how they should best monitor themselves so they do not become a health risk, like doing self-reports and checking their temperature throughout the 21 days when symptoms may occur.

When it comes to Syracuse University, there seems to be no direct threat of the virus being spread at the moment.

“There are no students attending Syracuse University from the three targeted countries with Ebola which are Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea,” said Pat Burak, director of the Slutzker Center for International Students.

When people are coming to Syracuse directly from Africa, Border Patrol warns Syracuse Hancock International Airport that they are coming. Screenings have opened up in five different airports in the east coast, Nguyen said, including JFK Airport in New York City, Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. and Liberty Airport in Newark.

“We do not actively seek out anyone to monitor them,” Nguyen said.

Depending on how much of a risk that person poses, Border Patrol asks certain questions to put them in one of the three categories of risk, Nguyen said. Even if a person was in Africa, there is a chance they could be no risk at all.

The people who would be in the third and highest category of risk would be medical professionals who have treated Ebola patients while they are in those countries. People who have also attended funerals and were in contact for some time with the body, as well as family members or health care workers that came in contact with someone that has Ebola would be put in category three, he said.

Dr. Spiro Tzetzis, the medical director of the Department of Health Services at SU said in an email that the university will continue to follow the evolving guidelines put forth by the Center for Disease and Control for handling the virus. He said SU has been taking precautions to monitor members of the university community who may have traveled to affected countries on business or for other reasons.

“While we do not have any students on campus to whom this type of monitoring applies, we believe it’s necessary to follow the guidance and best practices as outlined by the CDC and will work collaboratively with our local health department if such a situation should arise,” Tzetzis said.

Published on October 23, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Lauren: lmdoyle@syr.edu