The Biden government is continuing with plans to investigate airline passengers from two African countries arriving in the US for Ebola, which involves sending them to one of about half a dozen designated airports.
The Centers for Disease Control confirmed the plan Friday night, hours after Yahoo News first reported that administration officials were finalizing details of how the shows would work. “Out of an abundance of caution,” the U.S. government will impose public health measures on the very small number of travelers from the [Democratic Republic of Congo] and Guinea, ”the CDC said in a statement.
Under the plan, the US government will send passengers from the countries to six airports where data will be collected for contact detection and basic health examinations.
The exact details of the performances will soon be discussed in the White House and the National Security Council on Friday afternoon. According to the CDC, the changes will take effect next week.
The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On February 17, the World Health Organization reported a group of Ebola cases in Guinea. Out of seven reported cases, five people died; the other two are in seclusion in dedicated health care facilities. The specific Ebola virus species has not yet been determined, the WHO reported at the time. On February 15, 192 contacts were identified.
The WTO “considers the spread risk in the country to be very high given the unknown size, duration and origin of the outbreak; potentially large number of contacts; potential spread to other parts of Guinea and neighboring countries; limited reactivity currently on the ground; and unknown virus strain, ”according to a bulletin distributed to U.S. government agencies on February 18.
All six countries bordering Guinea, according to the WHO, are finalizing their operational plans for national readiness and readiness. The overall state of readiness in the six countries is, according to a tool for calculating the WHO, almost 66 per cent, which is still lower than the benchmark of 80 per cent.
“We have learned the hard lessons from history, and we know that preparedness with Ebola and other emergencies works in health. It trades now or pays later in lost lives and destroyed economies. “Systematic supervision, comprehensive preparations and strong, cross – border coordination are crucial to detect any cases and ensure that they are isolated, treated quickly and that the vaccination of high-risk contacts begins quickly,” said Dr. Africa.
A separate WHO warning, sent on 11 February, contains detailed reports of Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since 2017, there have been five outbreaks in Congo, including one that raged from 2018 to 2020 and caused nearly 2,300 deaths. The current outbreak occurs in the same region.
The news comes less than six months after the previous US government terminated similar measures for COVID-19, and considers it of little use to control the spread of the virus. Prior to the turnaround, international passengers were pulled through 15 airports and underwent basic health checks, including a temperature check.
Since Ebola viruses were first identified in 1976, more than 20 known outbreaks of the disease have been identified in sub-Saharan Africa, including Sudan, Uganda and Gabon. The 2014-16 outbreak in West Africa was the largest, resulting in more than 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths – a death toll of about 63 percent.
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