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A
member of the U.S. Coast Guard (upper left) takes the temperature of an
arriving passenger as a Customs and Border Protection officer examines
documents during screening for the Ebola virus at O'Hare International Airport
in Chicago, Ill., on Oct. 16, 2014.(Photo: US CBP/EPA)
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Federal authorities will
end mandatory Ebola screening Monday [today] for travelers from Liberia to
five U.S. airports, but will continue to scrutinize travelers from Sierra Leone
and Guinea, federal officials announced Friday. The Department of
Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection had provided extra
screening for more than 30,000 travelers during the past year, after an
outbreak of the often fatal disease in West Africa.
The
Ebola outbreak that began in early 2014 sickened 28,220 in Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Guinea, and killed 11,291 through Sept. 13, according to the World
Health Organization.
WHO
declared Liberia free of Ebola transmission on Sept. 3.That date was 42
days, or twice the incubation period, since the last patient
ended treatment in that country.
USA Today report continues:
Customs
and Border Protection and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agreed
to remove Liberia from the list of countries subject to enhanced visa and
port-of-entry screening, effective Monday. CDC revised its
travel notice for Liberia on Sept. 3, to advise U.S. residents
to take the usual precautions when visiting that country. The previous
advisory recommended enhanced precautions to avoid contracting Ebola.
The
U.S. will maintain extra screening for travelers from Sierra Leone and
Guinea, which still see a handful of new cases each week, and
for people who traveled through those countries during the previous three
weeks.
Extra airport
screening began Oct. 11, 2014, three days after Thomas Eric Duncan, 42,
died from Ebola after arriving in Dallas from Liberia. Two healthcare workers
who treated Duncan became ill in October 2014, but they were treated and
recovered. A New York City doctor fell ill that October after returning
from treating Ebola patients in Guinea, and he recovered.
Ebola
is relatively difficult to catch because it is transferred through bodily
fluids, such as blood or vomit, rather than through the air like flu. But
the disease sparked widespread panic about travelers spreading the
disease because it typically kills half the people who become infected.
The
U.S. does not have direct flights to West Africa. But the extra
airport screening focused on connecting flights at five airports that
handle 94% of the travelers arriving from the three outbreak countries.
The extra screening
is conducted at New York’s John F. Kennedy, New Jersey’s Newark, Chicago
O’Hare, Washington Dulles and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airports. The
screening involves questionnaires about possible exposure to Ebola and a
temperature check. Arriving travelers are also educated about how to
monitor their temperature for fever and to seek health care if they
fall ill.
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