Vice chancellor Professor Munashe Furusa said the move had been caused by the high concentration of foreign students – most of whom came from nations affected by the outbreak.
“Together with the provincial hospital, we developed rapid response teams. We have our ambulance working, so we were ready. We further partnered with the province to put up rapid response teams and surveillance teams. Everyone who comes in after travel is surveyed. We have something very solid in place. Before the nation came up with a strategy we had already come up with one,” he said.
The university has 1,426 conventional students from 26 African states. It provided sanctuary to some foreign students from Ebola affected countries during semester breaks as means to minimise contraction. Ebola wreaked havoc in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Zimbabwe has not recorded an Ebola case, but it is susceptible to the virus because it is a transit route from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the disease was first identified in 1976, to South Africa.
Zimbabwe Deputy Minister of Health Paul Chimedza says the country has learned from its fight against HIV/AIDS and has a “robust system” to fight Ebola.
Post published in: Health