A stepped-up screening program to check the temperatures of travellers arriving from West Africa is starting at New York's Kennedy International Airport, part of an effort to stop the spread of Ebola.
The effort to screen travellers from the three West African countries most affected by Ebola starts Saturday at Kennedy and will be expanded over the next week to Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta.
Customs officials say about 150 people travel daily from or through Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea to the United States, and nearly 95 per cent of them land first at one of the five airports.
There are no direct flights to the U.S. from the three countries, but Homeland Security officials said last week they can track passengers back to where their trips began, even if they make several stops. Airlines from Morocco, France and Belgium are still flying in and out of West Africa.
No-touch thermometers
U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the new screening measures support protections already in place. Border Patrol agents already look for people who are obviously ill, as do flight crews, and passengers departing from West Africa are being screened.
Public health workers at Kennedy Airport will use no-touch thermometers to take the temperatures of the travellers from the three Ebola-ravaged countries; those who have a fever will be interviewed to determine whether they may have had contact with someone infected with Ebola. There are quarantine areas at each of the five airports that can be used if necessary.
Health officials expect false alarms from travellers who have fever from other illnesses. Ebola isn't contagious until symptoms begin, and it spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of patients.
The extra screening at U.S. airports probably wouldn't have identified Thomas Eric Duncan when he arrived from Liberia last month because he had no symptoms while travelling. Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died Wednesday in Dallas.
41 UN staffers under observation
Meanwhile, Liberia's United Nations peacekeeping mission has placed 41 staff members, including 20 military personnel, under "close medical observation" after an international member of its medical team was diagnosed with Ebola this week -- the second mission member to test positive for the deadly disease.
"This measure is precautionary and meant to ensure no possible further transmission of the disease," the mission said in a statement Friday. "None of the personnel who are contacts have shown any symptoms but will be observed for the full 21-day possible incubation period."
Liberia has recorded 2,316 confirmed, suspected and probable Ebola deaths -- far more than any other country touched by the current outbreak, according to the latest World Health Organization figures released Friday.
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