Travelers arriving in the United States from any of three Ebola-stricken African countries will be monitored for symptoms for 21 days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced.
The program, which will commence on Oct. 27, will require travelers from Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone to check in with local public health officials on a daily basis to ensure that they have not contracted the Ebola virus. If Ebola symptoms are absent at the end of the 21-day monitoring period, the traveler is free of the virus and poses no threat to the general public.
© CDC
Dr. Thomas Frieden
“The bottom line here is that we have to keep up our guard against Ebola,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), during a teleconference with members of the media. “These additional steps will protect families, communities, and health care workers.”
The CDC and local health agencies will collect e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and addresses from travelers to monitor them when they enter the United States. Similar information for a friend or relative in the United States also will be noted. Once within the country, passengers will be required to check in with local health agencies every day to report their temperature and any flulike symptoms, and will have to coordinate with the relevant public health officials if they plan to do any additional traveling within the United States.
Hospitals and other medical facilities are continuing to be instructed on the best ways to transport patients with suspected Ebola and care for those who are infected. A 24/7 CDC hotline also will be available for anyone who needs more information, and all travelers from the affected West African nations will be given Ebola “care kits” as well. Each kit includes a thermometer, temperature tracking log, and instructions on whom to contact if symptoms or fever develops.
The active monitoring programs will initially launch in just six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and Georgia. These states, according to the CDC, are where roughly 70% of travelers from West Africa end up, although the CDC will continue to work with all other states to set up active monitoring programs.
The announcement comes just 1 day after the CDC released from a 21-day monitoring period those individuals who came into contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient in the United States. Mr. Duncan died Oct. 8.