After several students at five schools in the Dallas Independent School District in Dallas, Texas, reported that they had had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the U.S. diagnosed with the ebola virus, the school district has gone proactive and rolled out electronic scanners to screen kids for fever, one of the first symptoms of this deadly disease. Duncan died on Wednesday in a Dallas hospital, and the children and several other people who may have had contact with him are now being closely monitored in isolation, according to a CBS News report.
So far, none of these individuals are showing symptoms of the disease, but with an entire city on edge the school district chose to take precautionary measures. Andre Riley, spokesperson for the school district, explained that the fever-screening monitors are being set up in school nursing stations, and will be used to screen any child that shows signs of an illness or fever.
Screenings will take place in the schools for several weeks while health officials wait to see whether those who were exposed to Duncan have contracted the virus.
The scanners, which can be used to check a child’s temperature without touching the child, are on loan to the school district courtesy of Dallas-based Wello Inc. Since the ebola virus spreads through contact, the scanners may help lower the risk of spreading the infection if a child in the school system has it.
