Ebola Outbreak: U.S. to monitor passengers arriving from Ebola-stricken African countries for 21 days

The CDC announced a 21-day monitoring period for anyone returning to the U.S. from Ebola-stricken African nations.

Director of the agency, Tom Frieden, said on Wednesday that from next Monday, October 27, the measures will be used in six states to give 'additional new safety'.

Passengers arriving from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will be asked for emails, phone numbers and addresses, as well as family or friend contacts, to make sure no one goes unnoticed.

Travelers will be given a kit from the CDC which contains information cards, showing the symptoms, and a thermometer to take their own temperatures.

Fending off demands to ban travel from Ebola-stricken West Africa, the Obama administration instead tightened the nation's defenses against Ebola by requiring that all arrivals from the disease-ravaged zone pass through one of five U.S. airports.

The move responds to pressure from some Congress members and the public to impose a travel ban on the three countries at the heart of the Ebola outbreak, which has killed over 4,500 people, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, since it emerged 10 months ago.

Beginning on Wednesday, people whose trips began in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone must fly into one of the five U.S. airports performing fever checks for Ebola, the Homeland Security Department said.


Credit: Associated Press
Photo Crefit: Reuters