June 5, 2003
SARS guidelines seek to prevent campus outbreak
The UW has announced guidelines to prevent an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the University community.
The guidelines were created by an Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases, composed of UW physicians, health officers, environmental health specialists, and other staff. The committee was chaired by Ernest R. Morris, vice president for student affairs.
The foundation for the guidelines is an understanding that SARS is not transmitted through casual contact and that the virus has an incubation period of about 10 days. The policy will require mandatory health screening of all individuals who travel to SARS-affected areas, or those who have been in close contact with such individuals.
The policy will apply to students going home for the summer to a SARS-affected area and returning to the UW in the fall, students coming to the UW from a SARS-affected area for summer school, conference participants coming to the UW this summer from SARS-affected areas, faculty who may be traveling to a SARS area, as well as new students, visitors and lecturers coming to the UW from a SARS area.
Special considerations will apply to individuals coming from SARS areas who wish to live in UW housing: Before moving in they will need to demonstrate that they are symptom-free and have been away from a SARS-affected area for at least 10 days. They will be required to undergo a health screening at the UW’s Hall Health Center or another University-approved facility.
In addition, the UW is strongly discouraging business travel to any area for which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued a SARS travel advisory. Individuals who believe they have a compelling reason to travel to those areas must notify the relevant University administrators and work with the University’s public health authorities to ensure that they are taking appropriate travel precautions.
The full policy is available on the Web at http://www.hallhealthcenter.com or http://www.depts.washington.edu/ovpsa/.
