TCU has been proactive in educating its campus about Ebola.

In October, students received an email from Chancellor Victor Boschini regarding an update on the virus and access to a web page containing information about Ebola, the flu and other illnesses.

In addition, Dr. Mark Kline, physician-in-chief at Texas Children's Hospital, visited TCU recently where he talked Ebola, its transmission and how to take steps to prevent it.

The information came after Nina Pham, who graduated from TCU’s nursing program, contracted Ebola from her patient, Thomas Duncan, a Liberian man who later died from the virus in Dallas.

“It made everyone start talking about [Ebola] more,” said TCU junior nursing major Lana Dove.

Dove said if people had been more educated about Ebola, they would not have been so scared.

Dove first heard about Ebola in the book “The Hot Zone” in a microbiology class that every nursing major is required to take, she said.

Having been educated on the virus prior to the recent Ebola outbreak and knowing the low chance of it spreading, Dove said while she was concerned about the seriousness of the virus, she was not necessarily scared about Ebola spreading in the Fort Worth area.

TCU journalism major Kaitlin White said she first heard about Ebola when Duncan was diagnosed.

“I remember I was really scared and didn’t really know what was going to happen from it or if he was going to spread it to other people,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about Ebola. I didn’t know if he coughed it would spread that way. I didn’t know how it could spread.”

According to the CDC, Ebola symptoms include fever (greater than 101.5F), severe headache, joint and muscle pain, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and sometimes hemorrhaging (bleeding or bruising).

Outbreaks have appeared sporadically since the virus was discovered in 1976, according to Tarrant County Public Health.