The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that travelers from Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the United States will be required to provide contact information because of two separate Ebola outbreaks in the countries.
The relatively small number of passengers – flying to the six designated US airports best suited to deal with the situation – will have to give airlines their information as of Thursday, which will be handed over to the CDC so that health officials can talk to the person and whether it is necessary to quarantine them, reported The Washington Post.
The traveler must present his information if he has been in any of the African countries in the past 21 days, the CDC said on Tuesday.
The six airports are in New York, Newark, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, DC
GUINEA DECLARES NEW EPIDEMIC OF EBOLA, FIRST RESURGENCE OF THE DISEASE SINCE 2016
Similar measures were taken last year, when travelers from China to the US were taken to specific airports to undergo temperature tests when the coronavirus pandemic began.
ARCHIVE – This undated color transmission electron micrograph image provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a virion of the Ebola virus. The World Health Organization said on Thursday, February 18, 2021, that it will send more than 11,000 Ebola vaccines to Guinea, a West African nation, in the coming days to combat the recent deadly hemorrhagic fever epidemic that has been declared in the south. of the country Region of N’Zerekore. (Frederick Murphy / CDC via AP, Archives)
The virus “spreads quickly” through body fluids, but presents “little risk” for those who have not been in close contact with an infected person, according to the CDC.
The last Ebola outbreak in Guinea in 2016 killed more than 11,000 people in the country.
It can also survive for hours to days on dry surfaces.
The CDC said the risk of Ebola spreading across the United States is “extremely low,” CNBC said.
Only about 60 passengers fly to the United States from Congo and Guinea each day, the Post reported.
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As of February 23, a total of 17 patients had the virus in both countries.