Ebola screenings at airport may be the next precaution taken to slow the spread of Ebola around the world.
President Barack Obama held a press conference on Oct. 6 after a meeting with leaders in the medical fields, Homeland Security and the military who are battling the disease. He called on other nations to assist in containing the disease.
"We're having to stand up, essentially, a public health infrastructure in many of these areas that haven't had one before, and that requires an enormous amount of effort. And I'll be very honest with you -- although we have seen great interest on the part of the international community, we have not seen other countries step up as aggressively as they need to," Obama said.
Ebola is becoming an epidemic in western Africa, and the first case has recently been diagnosed in the United States. So far, nearly 7,500 people have been confirmed, or are likely, to have the disease. Most of the victims are spread between Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Scattered cases have also been found in Nigeria and Senegal. More than 3,400 of those cases throughout the continent have resulted in fatalities. A Spanish nurse is the first person found to have contracted the disease outside Africa, fueling concerns the epidemic could spread worldwide. The health care worker contracted the disease after helping treat a 69-year-old priest who was flown back from Sierra Leone before he died from the disease in September.
Travelers from West Africa could now be subject to additional health screenings, in order to ensure they are not carrying the disease to other nations. The White House has not yet released details on the nature of the additional measures which could be put into place to contain the epidemic. Current screening procedures include checking for fever in passengers leaving affected areas of the world for other locations. The president is considering a wide range of possibilities, which could include inquiries for travelers, asking who they had been in contact with while in West Africa, as well as checking their body temperature.
The Obama administration has already promised more than $350 million to fight the outbreak of the disease in West Africa. The Department of Defense is prepared to spend $1 billion dollars during the response effort.
Thomas Eric Duncan, the lone American victim, is originally from Liberia. Doctors at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas recently listed his condition as critical but stable. The patient is on a respirator, and is receiving kidney dialysis to support his body's natural functions, along with an experimental drug brincidofovir. The Rev. Jesse Jackson led a prayer vigil to support the patient.
