Thousands of Nigerians admitted into
United Kingdom universities appear sure to face tough health screening
as their campuses have been placed on the alert for the danger posed
by the Ebola Virus Disease.
According to The Independent on Sunday,
the alert by Universities UK, the umbrella body that represents
vice-chancellors, was issued because the....
universities are expecting
new students to arrive from West Africa.
While the three countries which have seen
the largest number of Ebola cases – Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone –
have hardly any students enrolling at UK universities, Nigeria – which
has also had confirmed cases – is the fourth largest supplier of
international students to UK universities.
In 2012-13, the latest year for which figures are available, a total of 9,630 were enrolled.
A spokesman for the body said, “The issue
is very much on universities’ radars. We circulated to universities the
publicly available guidance on the topic.”
The guidance makes it clear that any
student suspected of having Ebola should immediately be isolated in a
side room away from any member of staff or student contact.
“The side room should have dedicated
en-suite facilities or at least a dedicated commode,” it says. “The
level of staff protection is dependent on the patient’s condition,” the
London-based newspaper newspaper said.
It added that “those having any dealings
with the patient must take careful hand hygiene precautions, wearing
double gloves and a disposable visor.
The guidance told university workers
that, “evidence from outbreaks strongly indicates that the main routes
of transmission of infection are direct contact (through broken skin or
mucous membrane) and indirect contact with environments contaminated
with splashes or droplets of blood or body fluids.”
It said that experts “agree that there is
no circumstantial or epidemiological evidence of an aerosol
transmission risk from patients.”
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