It's one of five major U.S. airports that will check travelers from West Africa for infection
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Oct. 9, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Stepped-up screening measures for Ebola will begin Saturday at JFK International Airport in New York City, the first of five major U.S. airports that will start screening travelers entering the country from West Africa.
The five airports receive 94 percent of the roughly 150 travelers who arrive daily in the United States from the West African nations hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak -- Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a Wednesday news briefing.
JFK Airport receives nearly half of all travelers from the three countries struggling with Ebola, officials said.
The four other airports -- Washington Dulles International, O'Hare International in Chicago, Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta and Newark Liberty International in New Jersey -- will begin their enhanced entry screening programs next week.
Meanwhile, the remains of Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with and killed by the Ebola virus in the United States, will be cremated to limit potential spread of the virus.
Duncan, 42, died Wednesday at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. The remains of Ebola victims "may contain Ebola virus," according to CDC guidelines sent to U.S. hospitals and mortuaries, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Cremation will kill any virus in the body so the remains can be returned to the family, officials said.
Duncan became infected with Ebola in Liberia before arriving in the United States on Sept. 20.
In related news, the condition of a Spanish nurse's assistant infected with Ebola has worsened, CNN reported Thursday. The woman is the first person known to catch Ebola outside of West Africa. She was part of a medical team that treated a Spanish priest who died in the Madrid hospital last month after being flown back from Sierra Leone.
In discussing the U.S. airport screening measures Wednesday, the CDC's Frieden said these measures make more sense than cutting off travel to the three countries, since such a move would hamper global efforts to end the Ebola outbreak there. Aid workers wouldn't want to travel to West Africa to help if there was a chance they wouldn't be able to return home, he explained.
"As long as Ebola continues to spread in Africa, we can't make the risk zero here," Frieden said.
The CDC is sending additional staff to the five airports to support the new screening measures, working in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Customs & Border Protection.
After passport reviews, travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will be escorted by customs agents to an area of the airport set aside for screening. Officials will be able to identify these travelers even if they have taken one or more connecting flights, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said at the Wednesday news briefing.
source : West African Leaders Plead for More Ebola Aid
