US Airports Try To Stop Spread Of Ebola

By Stina Sieg
Published: Wednesday, October 8, 2014 - 7:22pm

Five U.S. airports are adding new layers of screenings for passengers to try to keep Ebola from entering this country, but national and state health officials caution this only a part of combating the deadly disease.

The new screenings, which include temperature checks for passengers arriving from West Africa, will start at JFK airport in New York Saturday. In the coming days, four more of the country’s busiest international airports will be added.

Centers for Disease Control director Tom Frieden said while it’s important to be vigilant about Ebola being brought into the US, people shouldn’t forget the panic that surrounded the SARS outbreak more than a decade ago. He said more than $40 billion was spent to combat the spread of that disease.

"Those were costs from unnecessary and ineffective travel restrictions and trade changes that could have been avoided," he said.

With Ebola, Frieden said the U.S. government is beefing up travel screening, but not taking away from fighting the disease at its source. He says it’s also extremely important that health-care workers across this country know how to identify Ebola quickly. Will Humble, the director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, agrees.

"And the key to getting that done, really, honestly, is getting the word out to clinicians all across Arizona," he said, "especially in emergency departments, especially in urgent care, community health centers even."

Humble said the "new normal" is to ask all patients with a fever about their travel history. It's unlikely Ebola will come to Arizona, he said but stressed the disease will remain a threat here as long as it is West Africa.