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Texas Ebola patient dies--US opens screening centers at airports
by Joseph Earnest October 8, 2014
Newscast Media DALLAS—The Ebola patient who traveled from Liberia to Dallas to visit his family is dead after 10 days of being admitted to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, traveled to visit his long-lost son and the son's mother, yet that would be the last time he would see them.
Duncan's death is not surprising. Whether or not Duncan knew he had Ebola and decided to travel, we do not know. What we do know is, there were suspicions in Texas, that Duncan might have known his Ebola status and still traveled, putting several people in America at risk.
As punishment, and warning to travelers from Ebola-infected regions in Africa who travel to the US when they know they are infected, Duncan became the sacrificial lamb. They had to let him die, to send a clear and strong signal, that it is unacceptable for a person with a highly-contagious disease to travel across the world at the expense of putting hundreds, if not thousands of innocent people at risk.
In fact, in Texas, it is a crime of aggravated assault to knowingly put one at risk of contacting an incurable disease like HIV, and the Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, was contemplating bringing charges against the Liberian man, while he was still alive. (pop-up)
All other Ebola patients who accidentally contracted the virus and notified officials, who then airlifted them to America for treatment, have been cured. (pop-up)
Meanwhile, new airport measures are being implemented for travelers from African countries that harbor the Ebola virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs & Border Protection (CBP) this week will begin new layers of entry screening at five U.S. airports that receive over 94 percent of travelers from the Ebola-affected nations of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
New York’s JFK International Airport will begin the new screening on Saturday. In the 12 months ending July 2014, JFK received nearly half of travelers from the three West African nations. The enhanced entry screening at Washington-Dulles, Newark, Chicago-O’Hare, and Atlanta international airports will be implemented next week.
“We work to continuously increase the safety of Americans,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “We believe these new measures will further protect the health of Americans, understanding that nothing we can do will get us to absolute zero risk until we end the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.”
Entry screening is part of a layered process that includes exit screening and standard public health practices such as patient isolation and contact tracing in countries with Ebola outbreaks. Successful containment of the recent Ebola outbreak in Nigeria demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach. Add Comments>>
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