Posted: Wednesday, October 8, 2014, 5:59 PM
Five U.S. airports that receive the vast majority of travelers from the hardest-hit Ebola countries of West Africa will begin new screening procedures for airline passengers that may have been exposed to the deadly virus.
Philadelphia International Airport is not one of them.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday it will send staff to the five airports, starting Saturday at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, which receives nearly half of the travelers bound from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea to the U.S.
After a passport review, passengers from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone will be escorted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to an area in the airport and visually assessed for signs of illness, and questioned about their health and potential exposure to Ebola, the CDC said.
The passenger's temperature will be taken by trained medical personnel with a 'non-contact thermometer,' the CDC said. Any traveler exhibiting a fever, or symptoms of possible Ebola exposure, will be further evaluated in a CDC quarantine station, which are located in 20 U.S. airports, including Philadelphia.
'We believe these new measures will further protect the health of Americans, understanding that nothing we can do will get us to absolute zero risk until we end the Ebola epidemic in West Africa,' said CDC director Tom Frieden.
The increased screening procedures will begin next week at Washington Dulles, Newark, Chicago O'Hare, and Atlanta international airports. Together the five airports receive more than 94 percent of travelers from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, the CDC said.
Travelers from these countries who do not have symptoms of a fever, or a known history of exposure will receive health information for self-monitoring, the CDC said.
Each day 3,500 to 5,500 international travelers arrive at Philadelphia International Airport, and very few come from West Africa, said Stephen Sapp, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Philadelphia.
'We don't see that many travelers coming in from Africa,' he said. 'They go into international airports that are busier with passengers coming from those parts of the world.'
United and Delta Air Lines are the only U.S. carriers serving Africa, and no U.S. carrier flies directly to Liberia, Sierra Leone, or Guinea.
American and merger partner US Airways, the dominant carrier in Philadelphia, have no flights into Africa. Travelers from Africa can fly to the United States from Europe, including Paris, Brussels, and London, where US Airways and American fly.
Passengers from countries with Ebola outbreaks account for only 0.03 percent of the U.S. airline industry's fourth-quarter seating capacity, Hunter Keay, airline analyst with Wolfe Research & Co., said in a client note.
Currently, outbound passengers are screened for Ebola symptoms in the three nations hardest hit by the outbreak. Since exit screening began two months ago, 36,000 people have been screened and 77 were denied boarding a flight due to the health screening process, the CDC said.
None of the 77 was diagnosed with Ebola. Many were diagnosed as ill with malaria, a disease common in West Africa, the CDC said.
Since Sept. 30, incoming passengers from West Africa at U.S. Customs and Border checkpoints, including Philadelphia, have received fact sheets about Ebola.
The protocol has been that anyone with symptoms or anyone who appears ill is isolated in the airport terminal and CDC is called, Sapp said.
'CBP personnel will continue to observe all travelers entering the United States for general overt signs of illness at all U.S. ports of entry,' said Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson.
U.S. airlines have screening procedures in place that they have used during other outbreaks, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and H1N1, the so-called swine flu outbreak, said Airlines for America, the industry trade group.
The measures include denying boarding to travelers who appear ill, reporting onboard sick travelers to the CDC, the operations tower, and Customs in the city where the plane is to land.
The flight crew separates the ill person from others on the plane. Cabin crew wear waterproof disposable gloves before touching the ailing person, and notify the airline's ground and cleaning crews to sanitize the aircraft after passengers disembark.
Pilots on incoming international flights are required by law to report ill travelers with flu-like symptoms - fever or vomiting in the case of Ebola - to the CDC before arrival.
The plane is met on the tarmac - as happened with a sick passenger landing at O'Hare airport on Monday night - by fire and medical personnel in hazmat gear. Officials determined the woman did not have Ebola and gave the all-clear. Passengers suspected of having the virus are quarantined.
'Generally, the arriving international airline will contact the tower, and the tower will contact Customs and Border Protection and CDC,' Sapp said. 'We provide support to CDÇ,' which maintains a small medical staff at Philadelphia airport.
'The last time I remember us exercising this was when we had the big Avian influenza scare. We simulated a couple passengers arriving from Asia, smuggling live birds in,' Sapp said. 'It's the same protocol for any of the respiratory diseases that we've seen over the last three to five years.'
Customs officers at Philadelphia airport have seen two medical cases in recent weeks: a woman complaining of chest pains who later said she was fine, and two children arriving from Asia with high temperatures who were taken to Children's Hospital by the Philadelphia Fire Department, Sapp said.
lloyd@phillynews.com
215-854-2831
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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