Thread: CDC chief on Ebola: We can’t shut the border

Ibuprofen Is All It Takes to Avoid Airport Ebola Screening: Experts



Fighting Ebola 101: 6 Household Items That Can Protect You

NBCNews.com

NEW YORK - People who contract Ebola in West Africa can get through airport screenings and onto a plane with a lie and a lot of ibuprofen, according to healthcare experts who believe more must be done to identify infected travelers. At the very least, they said, travelers arriving from Ebola-stricken countries should be screened for fever, which is currently done on departure from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. But such safeguards are not foolproof.

"The fever-screening instruments run low and aren't that accurate," said infection control specialist Sean Kaufman, president of Behavioral-Based Improvement Solutions, a biosafety company based in Atlanta. "And people can take ibuprofen to reduce their fever enough to pass screening, and why wouldn't they? If it will get them on a plane so they can come to the United States and get effective treatment after they're exposed to Ebola, wouldn't you do that to save your life?"

On Thursday, Liberia said the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed in the United States had lied on a questionnaire at Monrovia's airport about his exposure to an Ebola patient. Thomas Eric Duncan's arrival and hospitalization in Dallas have underscored how much U.S. authorities are relying on their counterparts in West

African countries to screen passengers and contain the worst Ebola outbreak on record.
Virologist Heinz Feldmann of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has studied Ebola for
years and helped develop an experimental Ebola vaccine. He told Science magazine in September that airport screeners in Monrovia, where he spent three weeks, "Don't really know how to use the devices." He said he saw screeners record temperatures of 32 degrees C (90 F), which is so low it "is impossible for a living person." Feldmann said in an email that according to his colleagues who have returned from Liberia in the last few days procedures for taking temperatures and doing clinical checks have improved.

IN-DEPTH

• NBC News Freelancer in Liberia Diagnosed With Ebola
• No Law Requires People to Tell Airlines They're Sick
• How Ebola Made Its Way to the U.S.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebo...xperts-n217366

Originally Posted by HAPPY2BME

"I wish we could get to zero risk by sealing off the border. But we can’t. The only way we are going to get to zero risk in this country is by controlling it in Africa.... Sealing them off – first off won’t work. Second off, it will backfire. Because if we can’t get help in there, then we’re not going to be able to stop the outbreak and ultimately we will end up at higher risk, not lower risk," said Frieden.

Frieden sets up a straw man, then knocks it down.

We can take sensible precautions at home and in Africa. Let's start with getting help in there. As far as I know, we still have military aircraft. We can use them to transport our anti-Ebola fighters to West Africa.

We can stop granting visas for private to travel to the source countries, and we can alert Americans to the risk of being stranded in those countries is they insist on traveling to them from countries not on the list of source countries.

We can use our anti-Ebola fighters to teach test procedures and monitor the result of the locals' testing. Re using ibuprofen to game the test, if that becomes a problem, there's probably a blood test to identify that. (We can always use a military aircraft to return people to their own countries.)

Finally, we can limit visas to the United States from the source countries. For example, we can permit business travel - after testing, of course - but prohibit private travel.

These sensible precautions are eminently doable. No need to demonize people from the source countries, and no need to increase our own risk by permiting travel which can be postponed until the outbreak is under control.

The only real obstacle to taking sensible precautions is that 'Bama has such disdain for ordinary Americans that the impetus for sensible precautions will have to come from us.
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CDC Director: Travel ban would make outbreak worse...


By Cameron Joseph - 10/04/14 01:17 PM EDT

A travel ban to the countries facing an Ebola outbreak could paradoxically make the problem worse, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said during a Saturday press conference.

Frieden said the CDC would consider any and all precautions, but warned that a travel ban could make it harder to get medical care and aid workers to regions dealing with the outbreak.

He cited the recent delay African Union aid workers experienced trying to get to Liberia.

"Their ability to get there was delayed by about a week because their flight was canceled and they were stuck in a neighboring country," he said.

Frieden also said the CDC has experienced a spike in reported potential cases of Ebola following the first diagnosis of a patient in the U.S. in Dallas earlier this week, saying the rise in concern was a good thing but that he remained the only patient who has been identified as suffering from the disease. Two patients who were initially identified as having potential Ebola symptoms in the Washington, D.C. area were ruled to not have the disease on Saturday.

"We have definitely seen an increase in the number since this patient was diagnosed… that is as it should be," Frieden said.

"We have already gotten well over 100 inquiries for possible patients… this one patient has tested positive," he said. "We expect we will see more rumors, concerns, possibilities of cases. Until there is a positive test that's what they are, rumors and concerns."

Frieden emphasized lessons to be learned from the delayed response to the Ebola patient in Dallas. It took two days for those who had been in contact with him to be contacted by medical officials, and Frieden said that should alert medical professionals to pay especially close attention to patients' travel history if they're showing signs of fever.

"As we anticipated, the arrival of the first Ebola patient in the U.S. has really increased attention to what health workers in this country need to do to be alert and make sure a travel history is taking," he said.

That sentiment was reiterated by Texas state Department of Health Services Director David Lakey, also on the call.

"Hospitals, healthcare workers across the nation have to learn from this experience," he said. "If you have a patient with fever and symptoms that have possibly be related to ebola, you have to ask that travel history and take it seriously."

None of those who had contact with the Dallas patient have shown any symptoms at this point.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare...outbreak-worse

SHOCKING: Illegals From Ebola Countries Caught at Our Border

President Obama says that our border is perfectly secure. He also says that we don’t have to worry about any Ebola problems. Nothing to worry our silly little heads about, right? But now we find that a border patrol agent has confirmed that illegals from Liberia have snuck across our border.
As GatwayPundit noted this weekend, Chris Cabrera, vice president in the National Border Patrol Council Local 3307, recently said “Not too long ago we did catch some people, I believe, from Liberia.”

There is more…

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a level three warning for US citizens to avoid traveling to West African countries experiencing an outbreak of Ebola.

Immigrants from West African countries have entered the US illegally, according to Chris Cabrera with the National Border Patrol Council.
“Not too long ago we did catch some people, I believe, from Liberia,” he said.

During the 2013 fiscal year, statistics from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website show Border Patrol agents apprehended 112 immigrants from Guinea, 231 from Liberia and 145 immigrants from Sierra Leone, which are the three countries currently experiencing the most cases of Ebola.

How many more are there? Where are they coming from? Does Obama even know?
- See more at: http://www.libertynews.com/2014/10/s....yLoayIlt.dpuf

Brooklyn teen hospitalized with Ebola-like symptoms

The 14-year old boy fell unconscious with a fiery fever in the Bergen Beach apartment he shared with his family around 6:30 p.m. after a two-week trip to the Sudan in North Africa, officials said.

The teen was rushed to nearby Brookdale Hospital just before 7:30 p.m., when he was isolated and quarantined by hospital staff as doctors began tests to determine whether the teen has Ebola or not.

Sources told The Post the boy may have lied on a sheet all travelers are required to fill out following trips to infected regions.

Government Has Failed In Its Job To Protect Americans From Ebola