United States airports tighten Ebola checks on West African travellers
New York international gateway first to introduce the latest system, to be followed by others
Medical teams at a New York airport, armed with Ebola questionnaires and temperature guns, have begun screening travellers from three West African countries as US health authorities intensified efforts to stop the spread of the virus.
John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) is the first of five in the United States to toughen screening of travellers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the countries that have seen most of the deaths from the outbreak, which has claimed more than 4,000 lives.
Nearly all visitors from those countries arrive at JFK, Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta. The new procedures will begin at the other four airports on Thursday.
Mohamed Dabo, 22, of Indiana, who arrived at JFK from Guinea after a stopover in Paris, said he was surprised by the intensity of the screening.
"I don't really know what was going on in there but it was kind of crazy," he said. "I sat down there for two hours."
Edward Lama Wonkeryor, 60, a professor of communications and African studies at a Liberian university, said going through the enhanced screening was educational for him, but he said the push to stop Ebola was stigmatising West Africans.
The screenings, which will affect few of the overall passenger numbers arriving at JFK, are being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection (CBP), under direction of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
There were no direct flights from the countries, so passengers to screen were identified from trip information and checking passports, R. Gil Kerlikowske, the CBP commissioner, said.
Using temperature guns, staff check for high temperatures among passengers whose journeys began or included a stop in one of the three countries.
Screeners also assess passengers for illness, ask about their health and whether they may have come into contact with an Ebola patient.
Buntouradu Bamgoura, 54, who was born in Guinea and lives in the US, said she was handed guidelines for screened passengers who were allowed to enter. The sheet offers tips for self-monitoring and instructions for doctors treating patients with Ebola-like symptoms.
For those with a fever or other symptoms or possible exposure to Ebola, the CDC said, authorities may decide to take a person to quarantine.
JFK is the entry point for nearly half the roughly 150 travellers who arrive daily in the US from the three West African countries, and those passengers amount to about one-tenth of 1 per cent of all international daily arrivals at the airport, the CDC said.
The CDC said the airport screening was just one aspect of an overall strategy to fight Ebola.
