Ebola Screenings To Start At Four US Airports Thursday

Starting Thursday, Oct. 15, four U.S. airports will be added to the screening process for Ebola. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare, Newark Liberty and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta will screen the roughly 150 people who travel daily from or through Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea to the United States.

The 95 percent of travelers from these West African countries travel through these main airports. Health officials will use no-touch thermometers to screen for potential fevers in passengers.

The screenings have already started at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport Saturday.

The heightened security comes straight from the Obama administration, according to The Hill. Due to the recent death of Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who flew to Texas and was the first person to die from the disease in the U.S., our government is now taking every precaution necessary to stop the disease from spreading within the country.

A Dallas nurse, Nina Pham, who cared for Duncan, became the first person to contract the disease on American soil.

Currently she has an "improved condition today," reported CNN. But she is "ill but clinically stable."

Other lawmakers in states like Texas and Minnesota are pressing for screening at their airports.

CDC Director Tom Frieden said Monday, Oct. 13, "on issue of banning travel, I understand that there are calls to do this. I really tried to focus on the bottom line here. The bottom line is reducing risks to Americans. ... Stop it at the source in Africa."

On stopping air travel altogether, Friedman said it's "much harder to stop the outbreak at the source. It would spread for more months and potentially to other countries."

As The Washington Post reported, travelers who are coming from West African nations will be met by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents who will take them to private screening rooms, where the travelers will be evaluated for illness and questioned about their recent travels. Temperatures will be taken, and if they show no sign of fever, they will be sent on their way.