February 27,2021
United States airports will soon be monitoring travelers coming into the country from African nations impacted by the current Ebola virus outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced .![a plane sitting on the tarmac at an airport: Biden Administration Reinstates COVID Travel Ban For Non-US Residents]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"80","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1e3My9.img?h=799&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"62","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1e3My9.img?h=624&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"62","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1e3My9.img?h=624&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"}})
Only around 60 passengers fly to the U.S. from the DRC Congo Africa and Guinea each day, the Post reported.
In conjunction with the travel restrictions, the CDC issued an order requiring airlines and aircraft operators to collect eligible passengers’ contact information before boarding. The information must include the passenger’s full name, an address while in the United States, a primary and secondary contact phone number while in the United States, and an email address that the passenger will routinely check while in the United States.
GA operators must submit the information using the Electronic Advance Passenger Information System (eAPIS). Information collected about crew members would be transmitted by encrypted email or other CDC-approved means within 24 hours the CDC’s request.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the first known outbreak of Ebola virus disease—a severe and often fatal illness—occurred in 1976. An epidemic of the disease occurred in western Africa from 2013 to 2016. Between 2018 and 2020 there was an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the cases identified there in February are believed linked to that occurrence.
Also in February, nine cases of Ebola virus disease, including five deaths, occurred in the Republic of Guinea. The World Health Organization expects that more cases will be identified and has notified six neighboring countries to be alert for potential infections, the notice said.
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was closely following outbreaks of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Guinea, and said the risk of Ebola to the United States was extremely low.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the U.S. government will institute public health measures for the very small number of travelers arriving from the DRC and Guinea,” the CDC said in a statement late on Friday.
“The Biden Administration is committed to working closely with the affected countries to end these outbreaks before they grow into epidemics,” the CDC said.
Guinea started an Ebola vaccination campaign on Tuesday, the World Health Organization said earlier in the week, as authorities race to contain the first resurgence of the virus there since the world’s worst outbreak in 2013-2016.
The resurgence of the virus, which causes severe bleeding and organ failure and is spread through contact with body fluids, has alarmed governments in the region and international health organizations, concerned that a major outbreak could overwhelm health infrastructures already battling a pandemic.
The CDC said on Friday that beginning next week, travelers from DRC and Guinea will be funneled to six U.S. airports. Airlines will collect passenger information for public health follow-up and intervention for all passengers boarding a flight to the U.S. who were in DRC or Guinea within the previous 21 days.
The Biden administration is moving forward with plans to screen airline passengers from two African countries arriving in the U.S. for Ebola, which will involve sending them to one of about a half dozen designated airports, Yahoo News has learned.
The Department of Homeland Security would, under the plan, send passengers from Guinea and Democratic Republic of the Congo to five or six airports where data will be collected for contact tracing and they will undergo basic health screenings.
On Feb. 17, the World Health Organization reported a cluster of Ebola cases in Guinea. Out of seven reported cases, five people died; the other two are in isolation in dedicated health care facilities. The specific Ebolavirus species is not yet determined, the WHO reported at the time. As of Feb. 15, 192 contacts had been identified.
The WHO “considers the risk of spread in the country as very high given the unknown size, duration and origin of the outbreak; potentially large number of contacts; potential spread to other parts of Guinea and neighboring countries; limited response capacity currently on the ground; and unknown virus strain,” according to a bulletin circulated to U.S. government agencies on Feb. 18.
All six nations bordering Guinea are finalizing their national preparedness and readiness operational plans, according to the WHO. The overall state of readiness in the six countries, according to a WHO readiness assessment tool, is nearly 66 percent, which is still lower than the benchmark of 80 percent.
“We’ve learned the hard lessons of history, and we know with Ebola and other health emergencies, preparedness works. It’s act now or pay later in lives lost and economies ruined. Systematic surveillance, comprehensive preparations and strong, cross-border coordination are crucial to detecting any cases and ensuring that they are quickly isolated, treated and that vaccination of high-risk contacts begin quickly,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa.
A separate WHO alert, sent out on Feb. 11, detailed reports of Ebola outbreaks in Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since 2017 there have been five outbreaks in Congo, including one that raged from 2018 to 2020, causing nearly 2,300 deaths. The current outbreak is occurring in the same region.
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