NEW YORK – President Obama told reporters Wednesday he is "cautiously more optimistic" that the chances of additional infections from Liberian traveler Thomas Eric Duncan are ebbing.
However, amid Obama's optimism, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced the CDC is placing on the honor system travelers to the U.S. from the West African nations stricken by Ebola.
Frieden explained that all travelers from West Africa who come through five U.S. gateway airports will be monitored for 21 days, the upper end of the incubation period for the Ebola virus. The daily regimen for the travelers will be to telephone the CDC once a day and report their temperatures, without any requirement to visit a physician or even to consult a doctor.
Frieden said the travelers from West Africa would be forbidden from traveling around the United States unless they first obtained permission from the CDC. But Frieden neglected to explain precisely how the government would go about finding any of the travelers who simply decided to roam about the country.
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Along with the fact that a person infected with Ebola might not show symptoms for 21 days, the symptoms initially aren't specific to Ebola. A fever, vomiting or diarrhea might be indicatives of other serious illnesses, including typhoid fever or malaria. Or it could reflect the stress of changing time zones.
The CDC said state and local authorities "will require travelers to report the following information daily: their temperature and the presence or absence of other Ebola symptoms such as headache, joint and muscle aches, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, lack of appetite, or abnormal bleeding; and their intent to travel in-state or out-of-state."
Frieden told reporters that in the event a traveler does not report to the CDC, state or local public health officials will take immediate steps to locate the individual to ensure that active monitoring continues on a daily basis.
“States will establish a plan to locate people if they do not check in on a daily basis,” he said, without specifying the plan.
“The states will also establish a procedure to follow up with a traveler who calls in and reports a fever, including where to transport that person, how to transport that person, and how their assessment will be managed," said Frieden.
In addition, CDC plans to hand travelers from West Africa a “CARE” kit, standing for “Check and Report Ebola." It contains a tracking log, pictorial description of symptoms, thermometer, guidance for how to monitor with a thermometer, a wallet card on who to contact if they have symptoms and a health advisory “info-graphic” on monitoring health for three weeks.
Frieden disclosed CDC was discussing with the states whether the daily monitoring could be done by email, SKYPE, telephone, Facetime or some other means of communication, including through occupational or employee health programs.
The CDC honor-system procedures reminded critics of the deportation-hearing notices routinely ignored by illegal aliens in the U.S.
Frieden neglected to explain what adverse consequences a traveler from West African would face for neglecting to follow the self-reporting procedures.
WND reported Wednesday morning a number of international passengers screened for symptoms of Ebola have been sent to local hospitals for observation.
Tuesday night, two passengers at O’Hare in Chicago from Liberia were ordered to hospitals for observation. A passenger at Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey was detained for hospital observation and four passengers who flew into Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., last week were taken to a local hospital.