WEST CHESTER, PA (WPVI) – A student at the University of West Chester has tested positive for monkeypox.
The student identifies himself as a traveler who lives outside of Chester County and does not live on campus.
Nancy Santos Gainer, the vice president of college communications, tells Action News that the student is currently isolated and is doing well.
Gainer said as soon as the university found out they started working with local health departments to see if anyone in Chester County had been exposed.
There have been no reports of any close contact with the student at this time, Gainer said. There have also been no other reports of monkeypox in college.
The students told Action News that they received an email from the university in which a student taking summer classes tested positive for monkeypox.
According to medical experts, monkeypox virus usually starts with generic virus symptoms such as headache, fever, pain and fatigue. But then this can increase and some may appear in rashes or smallpox marks, as they are known, all over the body.
It usually spreads through the respiratory droplets, usually after prolonged contact, and other body fluids or other forms of close contact.
“We want people to know that they’re coming into intimate contact with someone with smallpox. It’s not easily transferable,” Gainer explained.
It is not yet clear if the student came into contact with anyone outside of Chester County.
If that’s the case, Gainer said health departments in other counties would make a call to anyone exposed.
At this time, it is still unknown where the student contracted smallpox.
The University of West Chester published this statement in Action News:
“University of West Chester health officials received confirmation last weekend that a traveling student has tested positive for monkeypox. The student is currently isolating himself and is doing well. main health department investigation into the case, the University has been told there are no close contacts in Chester County There have been no other reports at the University and according to the CDC and the PA Department of Health , the risk of contracting monkeypox is still extremely low. ”
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