Ellen Creager, Detroit Free Press Travel Writer
Passengers exit international arrivals area at Detroit Metro Airport McNamara Terminal today in Romulus, Mich.(Photo: Ellen Creager, Ellen Creager/Detroit Free Press)
The death of Liberian Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas today put new pressure on the U.S. government to take immediate measures to protect the health of passengers and crew on U.S.-bound international flights, including at Detroit Metro Airport.
"I wouldn't have a problem if someone took my temperature," said Kathy Sidebottom of Battle Creek, who was at Metro Airport today awaiting a flight to Rhode Island. "I would want to know if someone could be a potential threat."
The White House said this afternoon that the temperature of arriving international passengers on flights from west Africa would be taken at New York's JFK, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare, Newark and Atlanta airports. The FAA and CDC were expected to issue other guidance. The CDC had no further details this morning, a spokeswoman told the Free Press.
Earlier today, the Department of Homeland Security instructed its agents at airports and other ports of entry to observe all people entering the country for signs of Ebola and "general signs of illness." Travelers also will get fact sheets from the Customs and Border Protection agents about the disease. However, it gave no details on exactly how agents would observe passengers.
Tuesday night, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents 60,000 flight attendants at 19 airlines, urged the government to do more to protect passengers and crew from the risk of Ebola. Delta Flight attendants are not represented by this union. Most flights at Metro Airport are on Delta.
Detroit has 16 flights arriving from overseas per day, said airport spokesman Michael Conway — 35 if you count flights arriving from Canada and Mexico. Detroit has no incoming flights directly from West Africa, or even the continent of Africa. However, many passengers from all over the world connect to flights that come through Detroit via Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam.
For example, in 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, also known as the underwear bomber, flew from the West African nation of Ghana to Amsterdam before connecting to Northwest Flight 253 onward to Detroit.
Detroit is one of 20 U.S airports to have a CDC quarantine area in its international arrivals area. If someone is sick, they are observed and treated in this area by trained paramedics.
In addition, Michigan has four vehicle international ports of entry from Canada: two in Detroit (the bridge and the tunnel), Port Huron and Sault Ste. Marie.
Ebola is a virus that has killed about 70% of those who contracted it during the latest outbreak in West Africa. It is transmitted by contact with its victims' bodily fluids — such as vomit, blood or saliva. More than 3,400 people have died of Ebola in West Africa during the current outbreak — the worst on record.
The outbreak was first detected in Guinea in March and has since affected Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal, where at least one patient has been identified. In addition, a nurse in Spain who treated two Ebola-stricken missionaries has tested positive for the disease and is in isolation. Hers is the first known transmission of the virus outside Africa.
This morning at Metro Airport, arriving international passengers had mixed feelings about the risk of Ebola to themselves or other travelers.
"You hate to trample on people's rights," said frequent international traveler Brian Schwanitz of Houston, who was in Detroit en route from Moscow via Amsterdam. "Traveling is complicated enough without adding health risks and another level of concern."
However, he supported evaluation of any international patient who appeared ill, "distressed or sweating."
Free Press Washington reporter Todd Spangler and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Detroit Free Press Travel Writer Ellen Creager, the Michigan Traveler, at ecreager@freepress com, 313-222-6498, or follow her on Twitter @ellencreager.
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