Ebola Scare: America Enforces Tighter Screening At Airports After The First Ebola Death In The Country Happened

Hours after the first Ebola death case was reported in the United States, the Obama administration ordered tightening of screening at all major airports to visitors coming from Ebola infected countries in the West Africa.

Curbs From Saturday

Under the new airport curbs, all travellers originating from West African countries will face greater scrutiny at the U.S. airports, according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Homeland Security. Passenger screening will be tightened at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York from Saturday. In the coming week, the airports of Washington Dulles, O'Hare in Chicago, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta and Newark Liberty in suburban New York will beef up the screening for Ebola, reported Washington Post.

More than 90 percent of people who fly to the United States from the Ebola-infested countries arrive at one of these five airports. Thomas Frieden, Director CDC told reporters that the "number of travellers from West Africa is relatively small."

More CDC staff has been deployed at the airports to work with Customs and Border Patrol officers during the screening. Suspected travelers will be taken to an area set aside for screening, where the temperatures will be taken with a thermometer that does not require any contact. Then they will be probed for any signs of illness by asking a series of questions. For travelers not requiring any additional checking or quarantining will be asked to leave their contact details and check their temperature every day.

According to the WHO, worldwide, Ebola outbreak has killed more than 3,000 people and infected more than 7,200. The worst affected is West Africa, reported BBC. In the U.S., the first Ebola related casualty was that of Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with the disease outside of Africa.

Obama For Vigil

Meanwhile, President Obama said in a press conference that the new screening methods will help in gaining an appropriate sense of urgency to prevent the outbreak of the disease in the U.S. Obama said, "We don't have much of a margin for error." But concerns still persist. Even the Ebola patient who died in the U.S. -- Thomas Eric Duncan had filled out a questionnaire and his temperature was taken by the CDC before he boarded multiple flights on the way to Dallas, where he was hospitalised and died.