Wait, You Can Have Ebola and Still Board a Plane?

The Atlantic ^ | 10/01/2014 | Olga Khazan

[SeekAndFind]

A man who flew from Liberia to Dallas has become the first Ebola case to be diagnosed within the U.S., the CDC reported Tuesday, and he is currently in isolation at Dallas's Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

Americans have been warned not to travel to Liberia, Guinea, or Sierra Leone, but they obviously can—and do.

So how are countries keeping suspected Ebola patients (well, most of them, anyway) contained within their borders?

Thermometers, mostly.

People are screened for elevated temperatures before they're allowed to board planes departing from the countries where Ebola is raging. Fever is one of the earliest symptoms of Ebola, but people can be infected for between two and 21 days without showing signs of illness.

The Washington Post's Todd Frankel described having an infrared thermometer gun pointed at his head in the Freetown, Sierra Leone airport, along with hundreds of other passengers. In some countries, individuals whose temperatures seem high later undergo a blood test for the virus.

But these temperature checks aren't always effective. In the Dallas case, the man left Liberia on September 19, had his temperature checked at the airport, and arrived in America on September 20. He only developed symptoms on the 24th, however, and he was isolated four days later. Patients are only contagious when they're symptomatic, so there's no risk the people on the flight with the man caught Ebola. There is, however, a four-day window in which he might have infected others in the U.S.

In July, an Ebola-infected man flew from Liberia to Nigeria, even though airport screenings were already in place, and he infected healthcare workers in Lagos. And of course, fevers are usually caused by flu and other illnesses that aren't Ebola.

[iowacornman]

We are busy harassing American traveler blaming them for the shoe bomber but stop these foreign disease bearing walking dead== RACIST!!

[Sarah Barracuda]

There is someone under isolation in Honolulu with symptoms of Ebola

[Mastador1]

Why not, you can be an incompetent, America hating muslim and be president.

[uncommonsense]

Hi, I'm feeling a bit tepid. I just drug two Ebola victims to their grave in Liberia, so I probably just over exerted myself.

Ok, fine, take 2 pills and call back in a week or two.

[PastorBooks]

If a person is already running a fever they are already contagious. Just checking him for a fever with the little tape-on thermometer strip gets the one doing the checking exposed, along with everyone else he touches with those same gloves.

Even if they turn someone away, the plane still takes off with who knows how many people who have just been exposed due to the “screening.”

[Blue Jays]

Good grief. Can't we simply review travel history?
If one has visited the Ebola hotspots...one has to quarantine overseas before traveling here?
There clearly has to be a travel restriction component to get a potential pandemic under control.

[NonValueAdded]

How did he make it through Customs, let alone past that triage nurse.

[GraceG]

Just heard that they have a patient in for testing in Hawaii

[EagleUSA]

You can also have Ebola and walk across our southern “border” at will. Who said “national security”??

[Tucker39]

Obunga is desperate for some kind of a crisis which will give him grounds for cancelling the November 2014 election. He MUST prevent having to spend his final 2 years with a Republican Senate and a veto-proof Republican House. And God only knows, some Republican who actually “has a pair” could come out of the woodwork and start really investigating all the scandals the rats have been frantically trying to keep covered up.

[null and void]

The game of Ebola Roulette continues...

*click* spin *click* spin *click* spin…BANG!

Eeeee-bolllll-aaaaaa ping!

Bring Out Your Dead

We’re gonna need

a bigger cart!

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

[Amendment10]

"Fever is one of the earliest symptoms of Ebola, ..."

Would school nurses be able to use thermographic cameras to spot somebody in a crowd who might have an ebola fever?

[NoLibZone]

There is currently no screening taking place.

None.

You will not be asked or asked to declare on the entry form if you knowingly had contact with Ebola.

No screening will take place until there is a non DNC administration in the White House.

The current US Customs Decleration rev May 2014:

CFR 5316 OMB NO. 1651-0009

http://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CBP%20Form%206059B%20English%20%28Sample%20Watermark%29.pdf

[Sherman Logan]

I use thermography at work, and a camera can be set to show only temperatures above a specific point.

[NoLibZone]

If I ran Liberia or Sierra Leone, I would fly dozens of infected to Jfk to compel the one nation capable , to come up with a cure.

[iowamark]

Temporal scanner thermometers are already in wide use. This photo is from Nigeria:

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping...

A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread

[steve86]

Would school nurses be able to use thermographic cameras to spot somebody in a crowd who might have an ebola fever?

Boy, that would have been a drag for me picking up the kids. At one time, I had a 100.5 F fever for at least two years.

[MeshugeMikey]