U.S. health officials reiterate opposition to a ban on travelers from West Africa
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Oct. 17, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- President Barack Obama says he's considering appointing an "Ebola czar" to oversee the federal government's response to the small but anxiety-producing presence of the often lethal virus in the United States.
"It may be appropriate for me to appoint an additional person, not because they [federal health officials] haven't been doing an outstanding job, really working hard on this issue, but they are also responsible for a whole bunch of other stuff," Obama said Thursday evening after meeting with several top aides working on the Ebola response, The New York Times reported.
Obama said he's considering such a move "just to make sure that we are crossing all the t's and dotting all the i's going forward." He did not say when he might make such an appointment.
Obama's comments came several hours after a Congressional subcommittee hearing where top federal health officials faced tough questions about their response to Ebola infections in the United States. The officials also defended their opposition to a ban on travelers from the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the sites of the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
To date, there has been one death and two infections from Ebola in the United States. The deceased was a native of Liberia who became infected in his home country before arriving in Dallas last month to visit relatives. The two infections involved two nurses at the Dallas hospital who helped treat the Liberian man.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed nearly 4,500 people out of an estimated 9,000 reported cases, according to the World Health Organization.
Also Thursday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was widening its search for people who may have had contact with one of the nurses who treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national and first patient ever diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Nurse Amber Joy Vinson was part of the medical team that cared for Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas, the focus so far of Ebola in the United States.
Vinson traveled by plane on Oct. 10 from Dallas to Cleveland to visit family members and returned to Dallas on Oct. 13. She said she had a slight fever before boarding the return flight to Dallas, but family members said she had appeared "remote and unwell" while in Ohio over the weekend, the Times reported.
The CDC said it was now tracking down passengers who took Frontier Airlines Flight 1142 from Dallas to Cleveland on Oct. 10. The agency had already been tracking passengers on her Oct. 13 flight back to Dallas.
CDC officials have said repeatedly that people infected with Ebola are not contagious until they show symptoms, such as fever and vomiting.
source : Obama Considers Naming an 'Ebola Czar'
