U.S. to Begin Screening Air Passengers From Uganda for Ebola
There are no cases in the United States, but federal health officials also urged doctors to be vigilant for patients with symptoms.
Worried by an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda, the Biden administration said on Thursday that travelers who had been to that country would be redirected to airports where they can be screened for the virus and warned physicians to be alert for potential cases in the United States.
No cases of Ebola have yet been reported outside Uganda, but the virus — which spreads only through contact with bodily fluids and is not airborne — is highly contagious. American officials are watching the Uganda outbreak closely because there are no approved drugs or treatments for the type of Ebola virus causing the outbreak there.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered the airport screenings, and the State Department issued an alert saying the measures would apply to all passengers, including U.S. citizens.
Screenings were expected to begin on Thursday for some passengers, but the travel restrictions will not go into effect until next week, according to an official familiar with the plan, who stressed that both the restrictions and the alert to doctors were issued as precautions.
As of Thursday, there were 44 confirmed cases and 10 deaths in Uganda, with a few dozen possible cases and 20 deaths still under investigation, making this the largest outbreak in that country in 20 years. At least six infections and four deaths occurred among health care workers.
Arriving passengers who have been in Uganda during the past 21 days will be funneled to one of five United States airports: Kennedy Airport, in New York; Newark Liberty International Airport, in New Jersey; O'Hare International Airport, in Chicago; Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; and Dulles International Airport, in Washington, D.C.
An administration official said 62 percent of air passengers who have been to Uganda already go through those airports. Once in the United States, passengers will undergo temperature checks and fill out health questionnaires, which will be shared with local officials, before heading to their final destinations.
The C.D.C. also urged doctors to obtain a travel history from patients whom they suspect of having Ebola.
While there are no direct flights from Uganda to the United States, travelers from or passing through affected areas in Uganda can enter the United States on flights connecting from other countries,” the C.D.C. alert said.
After the coronavirus pandemic and monkeypox outbreak, President Biden and other federal officials are well aware that infectious disease outbreaks also carry political risks, which may account for the administration’s caution. But there is also precedent for travel restrictions.
In February 2020, after the coronavirus emerged in China, the Trump administration barred entry by most foreign nationals who had recently visited the country and put some American travelers under a quarantine as it declared a rare public health emergency.
And amid an Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, the Obama administration forced passengers to fly to U.S. airports with screening procedures in place. President Barack Obama himself became engaged in the Ebola response after cases emerged in the United States.
