A graduate student at Yale University in Connecticut is being treated at Yale-New Haven Hospital for symptoms similar to those found in Ebola victims after returning from Liberia on Saturday.
According to the New Haven Register, the student was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday night and is being kept in isolation, in a negative pressure room, until test results have been returned from Massachusetts. Officials are reporting the patient’s condition has improved since being admitted to the hospital and that the highest level of precautions are being taken.
“Yale-New Haven Hospital admitted a patient late Wednesday night for evaluation of Ebola-like symptoms,” the hospital said in a statement. “We have not confirmed or ruled-out any diagnosis at this point. We are working in cooperation with City, State and Federal health officials.”
The student was admitted to the hospital with a low-grade fever and is said to be in “good, stable condition,” according to officials.
The patient is one of two Yale students who recently returned from Liberia, which is heavily affected by the deadly Ebola virus. The students had been kept in isolation in Liberia until they traveled back to the United States.
New Haven Mayor Toni Harp (D) said officials “don’t believe it will turn out to be an Ebola case.”
Laurence Grotheer, a New Haven city spokesman, said the student contacted the Yale School of Public Health after developing a low-grade fever Wednesday. As a precautionary measure, the student was taken by ambulance to the hospital, Grotheer said.
“There is no diagnosis [of Ebola] and there is no public health risk,” he said, because the student is under special care at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Grotheer said he did not know if the student had contact with anyone upon return from Liberia.
The students volunteered to sequester themselves for 21 days following their return from Liberia, but Yale University School of Public Health Dean Paul D. Cleary said in an email statement that a “university-wide team of physicians, epidemiologists and senior administrators concluded that a 21-day sequestration was unnecessary.”
Cleary added that when both students left for Liberia, the school “knew they would not be in contact with Ebola-infected patients or health care providers.”
The students worked with health officials in Liberia on computer disease tracking systems.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.