JFK airport rolls out strict Ebola screenings

Gil Kerlikowske, Commissioner of the US Customs and Border Protection, speaks to the media on the implementation at JFK of enhanced screening of travellers arriving from Ebola-affected countries yesterday.

AFP/New York

John F. Kennedy International Airport will be the first of five airports to introduce the toughened measures, meant to provide a layer of protection in a nation jittery over importing fresh cases of the illness after the first patient diagnosed on US soil with Ebola died earlier this week.

Four other airports - Newark, just outside New York City, Chicago’s O’Hare, Washington’s Dulles and Atlanta International Airport in Georgia - are to start the checks next week.

Passengers arriving to any of the five airports from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will have their temperatures taken, be assessed for signs of illness and answer questions about their health and exposure history, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said.

Some could be barred from travelling further or referred to nearby hospitals if necessary.

“If the traveller has a fever or other symptoms or has been exposed to Ebola, Customs and Border Protection will refer that traveller to the Centers for Disease Control for a public health assessment,” CBP chief Gil Kerlikowske told reporters yesterday at the airport, one of the busiest in the US.

He said passengers suspected of serious illness could be issued “Do Not Board” notifications.

The travel ban could be applied to “individuals considered infected with a highly contagious disease...and (who) should be prevented from traveling on international aircraft,” he said.

Although the health checks provide an enhanced layer of protection, the US Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) cautioned that no screenings are airtight.

Still, an effecitive health screening protocol “does not have to be perfect to help reduce the spread of Ebola,” the CDC said in a statement.

The scaled-up measures were put in place after the death on Wednesday of Thomas Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola outside Africa. The Liberian man died in a Texas hospital after being given an experimental drug.

His case sparked panic about the possible spread of the deadly virus in the US, though President Barack Obama said the chances of a US Ebola outbreak were “extraordinarily low.”

The incubation period for the disease is two to 21 days, during which carriers may not present Ebola symptoms such as fever, vomiting and diarrhea. 

Ebola is transmitted by close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.

Together, all five airports account for 94% of all travellers coming into the US from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the worst-affected countries.

The screenings were not expected to clog arrival terminals, with only about 150 passengers per day set to be examined at all ports of entry, CDC director Tom Frieden told CNN.