Medical professionals are widening the methods they think may be useful or may become imperative in containing the disease.
Megha Satyanarayana, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | October 6, 2014
(MCT) — As Ebola makes inroads into the United States, medical professionals are widening the methods they think may be useful or may become imperative in containing the disease.
Agents with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, look for signs of illness in travelers, but public health professionals like Jay Winsten of the Harvard School of Public Health say that is not enough.
People traveling to the United States on passports or boarding passes from Ebola-afflicted nations need to be screened further. A fever can develop in the course of a 10- to 12-hour flight.
“It would not be inappropriate,” Winsten, who cautioned against relying on screening at West African airports, said in great understatement. “We could be really aggressive and not rely on the vicissitudes of the local people.”
Although the likelihood of getting Ebola is called low, other cases will develop, said David Dausey, dean of the school of health professions and public health at Mercyhurst University in Erie. The incubation time of Ebola is up to 21 days after initial infection. Closing borders of Liberia could have humanitarian and economic impacts, as many of the convoys heading in and out are bringing food, medical supplies and health care professionals to the country.
“The challenge we have is making sure we understand this disease and how it's evolving,” he said. “I don't know why we are so confident,” apparently referring to Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other medical officials stating this week that little danger exists of the disease spreading in the United States.
After killing thousands in West Africa, the virus found its way to American soil this week with the diagnosis in Thomas E. Duncan, a Liberian man who said he had no symptoms on arrival in Dallas, but fell ill a few days later. He is the first person diagnosed in the United States with the deadly virus.
Gavin MacGregor-Skinner, a public health professor at Penn State University who helped set up an Ebola isolation ward in Nigeria, said workers measured his temperature when he left the country a few weeks ago. They interviewed him about his work and exposure to patients. Similar monitoring took place when he arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, for his connection to the United States.
But, when he got to Washington, he and his team sailed through customs and immigration, even after telling agents he had been in West Africa.
“There needs to be better screening at airports,” he said.
Despite one confirmed case and others being monitored in growing areas, the threat will not be discussed by Congress until Oct. 16. It will be among the topics covered at a congressional hearing on the federal government's response to infection in the United States. CDC Director Tom Frieden is expected to testify.
The hearing will be chaired by U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, chair of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
“If people are fleeing a country where Ebola is present, they may be prone to lie about it in order to get out of there. We have to know how we're going to handle that. We have to make sure we have the best strategies in place to protect the public health,” Murphy told the Tribune-Review.
Efforts to reach U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials to clarify health screening at international airports were unsuccessful.
©2014 The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.). Distributed by MCT Information Services.
Agents with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, look for signs of illness in travelers, but public health professionals like Jay Winsten of the Harvard School of Public Health say that is not enough.
People traveling to the United States on passports or boarding passes from Ebola-afflicted nations need to be screened further. A fever can develop in the course of a 10- to 12-hour flight.
“It would not be inappropriate,” Winsten, who cautioned against relying on screening at West African airports, said in great understatement. “We could be really aggressive and not rely on the vicissitudes of the local people.”
Although the likelihood of getting Ebola is called low, other cases will develop, said David Dausey, dean of the school of health professions and public health at Mercyhurst University in Erie. The incubation time of Ebola is up to 21 days after initial infection. Closing borders of Liberia could have humanitarian and economic impacts, as many of the convoys heading in and out are bringing food, medical supplies and health care professionals to the country.
“The challenge we have is making sure we understand this disease and how it's evolving,” he said. “I don't know why we are so confident,” apparently referring to Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other medical officials stating this week that little danger exists of the disease spreading in the United States.
After killing thousands in West Africa, the virus found its way to American soil this week with the diagnosis in Thomas E. Duncan, a Liberian man who said he had no symptoms on arrival in Dallas, but fell ill a few days later. He is the first person diagnosed in the United States with the deadly virus.
Gavin MacGregor-Skinner, a public health professor at Penn State University who helped set up an Ebola isolation ward in Nigeria, said workers measured his temperature when he left the country a few weeks ago. They interviewed him about his work and exposure to patients. Similar monitoring took place when he arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, for his connection to the United States.
But, when he got to Washington, he and his team sailed through customs and immigration, even after telling agents he had been in West Africa.
“There needs to be better screening at airports,” he said.
Despite one confirmed case and others being monitored in growing areas, the threat will not be discussed by Congress until Oct. 16. It will be among the topics covered at a congressional hearing on the federal government's response to infection in the United States. CDC Director Tom Frieden is expected to testify.
The hearing will be chaired by U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, chair of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
“If people are fleeing a country where Ebola is present, they may be prone to lie about it in order to get out of there. We have to know how we're going to handle that. We have to make sure we have the best strategies in place to protect the public health,” Murphy told the Tribune-Review.
Efforts to reach U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials to clarify health screening at international airports were unsuccessful.
©2014 The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.). Distributed by MCT Information Services.
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