Illinois Family in Voluntary Quarantine After Family Member Arrives From Liberia

A Rock Island family is in a voluntary quarantine after a family member arrived there from Liberia, health officials said.

The Rock Island County Health Department said a family of five was placed into voluntary quarantine after Jennifer Philips arrived in the town from Liberia, though she reported that she had no contact with anyone with the Ebola virus and was experiencing no symptoms.

Theresa Berg, public health administrator for the department, said the department first learned about Philips after she was contacted by professionals from Augustana College who asked if they needed to take any precautions since Philips' father was an employee of the college.

“With this new experience to our community, and the nationwide discussion about Ebola, they were proactive and wanted to be responsible for the health and safety of all connected to Augustana College,” Berg said in a statement. “I advised that since I did not have information regarding the health status of Ms. Philips, their employee should go home and stay there. They complied with this request.”

RICHD said they then contacted the Illinois Department of Public Health and obtained a series of questions to interview Phillips.

“Since Ms. Philips reported no exposure to Ebola, and she had no fever and no symptoms, a mandatory quarantine was not indicated according to current CDC protocols,” the statement from RICHD read.

Berg said she asked the family to “observe a voluntary quarantine for at least 21 days” as an extra precaution and to “avoid disruption of activities at Augustana College or Rock Island High School.”

The department provided the family with thermometers and said staff will continue to communicate with them twice a day to log the reported temperatures and any potential symptoms.

“The Rock Island County Health Department is very aware of our important role in preventing and controlling the spread of communicable disease,” Berg said. “As Administrator I do not want to give Ebola information to the public that promotes a false sense of security. I also do not want anyone to panic and experience unnecessary fear. I will make every attempt to ensure that we provide careful guidance and information on what is known at this time about Ebola.”
 

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