I’ve just read a report on Fox News.Com that I’m passing onto readers who may not have heard or seen the report today. Homeland Security Department has ordered agents at airports and other ports of entry to observe everyone coming into the United States for potential signs of the Ebola infection, officials stated today. They did not provide immediate details or say what specific measures would be taken.
Fact sheets are being handed out by Customs and Border Protection agents to travelers detailing what type symptoms to look for and with directions to call a doctor if they become sick within 21 days, according to the Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
I personally feel these actions will definitely make a difference as people enter the country and if they’re displaying any signs of the virus to contact a doctor immediately; and by doing this, it possibly will help to prevent risks for the spread of the Ebola Virus into our country.
Mayorkas didn’t elaborate how they would observe the people or say when the new measures would begin. He indicated that agents would observe all travelers for “general signs of illness” at the points of entry. He spoke at an airport security conference in Northern Virginia today.
The Obama administration has wrestled in recent weeks with what it can do effectively to detect arriving passengers who may be carrying the disease since many of them may not be symptomatic when they arrive.
The department is aware of these issues and is “taking a layered approach,” Mayorkas said.
The World Health Organization has indicated the Ebola Virus has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa and infected at least twice that many. It has taken an especially devastating toll on health care workers, sickening or killing more than 370 of them in the hardest-hit countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone and in an area that is already short of doctors and nurses.
President Barack Obama has said the U.S. will be “working on protocols to do additional passenger screening both at the source and here in the United States.” There are extra measures in effect at certain airports in the affected countries. Passengers leaving the country in Liberia are screened for fever and asked if they have had contact with anyone infected with the disease.
Dr. Tom Frieden of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated this week that officials are looking at all other options “to see what can be done to increase safety of all Americans.”
This news allowed me to feel a little more at ease but there is a dark cloud hanging that does cause fear among people and in my opinion, this is expected. It’s hard to halt a disease if it becomes rampant but I do feel President Barack Obama and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are researching every aspect for halting the Ebola Virus in its tract and it is lessening fears.
Barbara Kasey Smith is the writer of this article based on Fox News.Com reports.
Source:
Fox News.Com