An airport worker wears a protective face mask in the arrivals area of the Los Angeles International Airport as the US announced increased passenger screenings against the Ebola Virus on October 9, 2014. Five United States airports (although not LAX) will step-up airport screening measures to look for passengers carrying Ebola, as the deadly virus killed a man in Texas and the worldwide toll topped 4,000. The spillover of the virus with the first diagnosis in United States and the first case of infection in Spain has raised fears of contagion in the West.(Photo: MARK RALSTON, AFP/Getty Images)



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Stepped-up efforts to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus begin this morning at New York's Kennedy International Airport as federal officials start extensive screening of passengers arriving from countries hardest hit by the outbreak that has killed more than 4,000 people globally.


Agents with the Department of Homeland Security's Custom and Border Protection will screen travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, taking their temperature and observing them for other Ebola symptoms.


If a passenger has a fever or exhibits other symptoms, they will be isolated. Then medical personnel with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will evaluate the person to decide if they can continue their travel or need to be taken to a hospital for further testing.


Kennedy is the first of five airports that will conduct the enhanced screenings. The others are Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare, Newark Liberty and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta.


R. Gil Kerlikowske, Customs and Border Protection commissioner, said at a press conference Saturday that about 150 people fly in every day from the affected countries and more than 94% of them arrive in the U.S. at one of the five airports that will do the enhanced screenings.


Public health workers at Kennedy Airport will use no-touch thermometers to take the temperatures of the travelers from the three Ebola-ravaged countries; those who have a fever will be interviewed to determine whether they may have had contact with someone infected with Ebola. There are quarantine areas at each of the five airports that can be used if necessary.


Health officials expect false alarms from travelers who have fever from other illnesses. Ebola isn't contagious until symptoms begin, and it spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of patients.



Moroccan health screening team dressed in protective gear examines passengers at the arrivals hall of the Mohammed V airport in Casablanca, Thursday, Oct 9, 2014. Airlines flying directly to and from the West African countries stricken by Ebola could carry infected passengers without knowing, but barring a complete stop to travel, they have few options to reduce risks. Passengers are screened before boarding, but because the disease is hard to catch in the early stages, itís possible the tests might not catch infected individuals.(Photo: Abdeljalil Bounhar, AP)



However, officials are quick to stress that these procedures alone will not stop the spread of the deadly virus.


"No matter how many procedures we have in place we can not get the risk to zero," Martin Cetron, director of the division of global migration and quarantine for the CDC said at a press conference in New York on Saturday morning.


These added measures, for example, would not have caught Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who on Wednesday became the first person in the U.S. to die of Ebola. Liberian authorities said when Duncan left the country he did not disclose in his exit screening that he had been in close contact with people with the virus.


Since August, airlines, airports and ministries of health in the affected countries have screened passengers, looking for sick travelers exposed to Ebola. The travelers are interviewed about their health and exposure history, assessed for any visual signs of possible illness and have their temperatures taken. The screening determines if they can fly out or must be further evaluated.


"People have to think Ebola," Cetron said. "We want to remind people to think Ebola if they have a fever and are coming in from affected areas."


Contributing: The Associated Press.


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