The U.S. will beef up airline passenger screening at home and abroad under a new plan to curb the spread of Ebola, President Obama said Monday.
'(We're) going to be working on protocols to do additional passenger screening, both at the source and here in the United States,' the President vowed.
Obama wasn't specific about when the new measures would begin, but the nation's top expert on infectious diseases said the White House was briefed Monday on the possibility of entry screenings that would involve temperature checks.
'Entry screening would help close the loop and might lessen the anxiety of the American public, but logistically, we need to balance the cost with the benefit,' Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health told the Daily News.
Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already have traveled to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and trained local staff to screen outgoing airline passengers with temperature testing, questions and observation. Such screenings have removed 77 people from outgoing flights, the CDC said.
The virus has killed more than 3,400 people in those countries, and the CDC has projected the outbreak could surge to as many as 1.4 million cases by January without further intervention.
Obama said he felt 'confident' the chance of an outbreak in the U.S. was 'extraordinarily low' and lambasted some countries for not taking more of a role in the fight to contain Ebola.
The President said they can't 'sit on the sidelines' and assume the U.S. will take care of the situation.
'We've got some small countries that are punching above their weight on this, but we've got some large countries that aren't doing enough,' Obama said.
Some prominent Republican lawmakers have called for a travel ban after Liberia national Thomas Duncan flew from West Africa to Dallas last month with the disease, but Obama stopped short of calling for any restrictions after meeting with his top health and security advisers Monday.
Fauci said barring travelers from Ebola-stricken countries wouldn't cure anything and could inadvertently make the problem worse.
'If a country is cut off from the world, it's harder to deploy the people and supplies you need to address the core problem. You risk collapse,' Fauci told The News.
'And if you try to seal borders, people will try to get around the restrictions, making it harder to track who's going in and out,' Fauci said.
On Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voiced support for entry screening and a database of travelers that could be made available to U.S. hospitals.
'I am pleased that President Obama has said that he will increase screening for Ebola on U.S. soil,' Schumer said Monday.
He urged the administration to take the temperature of all passengers at U.S. airports who have traveled from Ebola hot spots.
Meanwhile, a Spanish nurse who treated a missionary for Ebola tested positive for the disease, Spain's health minister Ana Mato said Monday. It's the first known transmission of the outbreak of the virus outside of West Africa.
The 69-year-old priest died Sept. 25.
With News Wire Reports
Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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