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Liberia

Ross pushing forward controversial Ebola bill

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The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is against it, but that’s not stopping U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross from introducing legislation that would curb flights from countries with outbreaks of the Ebola virus.

Ross introduced his bill Wednesday known as the Contain Ebola and Stop the Epidemic — or CEASE — Act of 2014, which would prohibit certain flights from landing in the United States, and to prohibit the country from issuing visas to those areas.

“Now that the United States is free of the Ebola virus disease, we must begin implementing a process that will keep our country safe from a potential future outbreak,” Ross, R-Lakeland, said in a release. “Craig Spencer, a doctor who helped treat Ebola patients in West Africa, returned home to New York to find he had become sick with the virus.”

Spencer was successfully treated for Ebola. However, Ross said he was concerned about a statement from Ron Klain, the Ebola czar appointed by President Obama, who said that the United States could see “occasional additional cases of Ebola in our country.”

“Klain’s statement does not provide my constituents and I comfort,” Ross said.

By banning flights and visas with countries where Ebola has become an epidemic, he added, it would reduce the threat of an outbreak in the United States. However, CDC officials have said that while people should always be vigilant against deadly diseases, Ebola is one that has almost no chance of ever becoming an epidemic in the United States.

To date, only one person has died from Ebola in the United States, creating a death rate in the country of 1-in-300 million.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, the head of the CDC, wrote in an opinion piece last month that turning back planes from countries with Ebola problems would only worsen the situation here at home.

“When a wildfire breaks out, we don’t fence it off,” Frieden wrote. “We go in to extinguish it before one of the random sparks sets off another outbreak somewhere else. We don’t want to isolate part of the world, or people who aren’t sick, because that’s going to drive patients with Ebola underground, making it infinitely more difficult to address the outbreak.”

Frieden also noted that all outbound passengers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are screened for Ebola symptoms before they board an airplane. Unlike other communicable diseases, Ebola can only be spread once someone is symptomatic, and even then it has to be through direct conflict, like body fluids. It’s can be spread through casual contact like the flu can, nor is it airborne in that way.

Ross’ bill would stop commercial flights that originated or stopped in Ebola-affected countries from landing in the United States. It would also prohibit federal officials from issuing immigrant or non-immigrant visas to anyone whose travel originates in or includes a foreign country where there is an Ebola problem.

The travel and visa ban would continue until a country is “no longer experiencing epidemic levels of the Ebola virus disease.”

“Ebola is still devastating areas of Africa, especially in both Guinea and Sierra Leone, which is why we must keep our guard up,” Ross said, in defense of his bill. “Until the CDC can ascertain that Ebola has been contained and eradicated overseas, we must be vigilant in keeping Americans safe by being proactive instead of reactive.”

Scott wants closer look of Ebola threat

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Although one nurse already under quarantine feels the measures are too restrictive in other parts of the country, Gov. Rick Scott has issued an executive order that could go as far as putting people under quarantine he feels is at high risk for Ebola.

At a minimum, however, Scott is ordering twice-daily health monitoring for people returning from certain parts of the world where the virus is in an outbreak, continuing over the 21-day incubation period of Ebola. That includes areas like Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have determined to be high-risk.

“We have asked the CDC to identify the risk levels of all returning individuals from these areas, but they have not provided that information,” Scott said in a statement. “Therefore, we are moving quickly to require the four individuals who have returned to Florida already — and anyone in the future who will return to Florida from an Ebola area — to take pear in twice-daily 21-day health evaluations with DOH personnel.”

The Department of Health, according to the governor’s office, started to look for people returning to Florida from those areas after a doctor returned to New York and later tested positive for Ebola. While the executive order stops short of automatically ordering a quarantine of those returning from those areas, Scott said he’s giving the health department the authority to take that action for anyone they believe is “at high-risk of testing positive for Ebola due to the type of contact they had with the disease.”

Just four people have been diagnosed inside the United States with Ebola, two of them health workers in Texas who treated the first diagnosed case. Although there is a virus outbreak in parts of Africa, the ability to spread Ebola is still difficult, because it requires an infected person to show signs of the illness, like fever, and it requires direct contact with bodily fluids.

Florida wants ‘abundance of caution’ against Ebola

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Could Ebola come to Florida? If it does, state government officials say they want to be prepared.

Over the weekend, a Miami hospital tested a patient to rule out Ebola, despite the fact the patient “did not meet the CDC case definition” for the virus, Gov. Rick Scott said, in a release.

“The test is being conducted out of an abundance of caution,” Scott said about the efforts of both the Florida Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Florida still does not have any confirmed cases of Ebola, and we hope we never do. But we are taking every preparedness step possible to keep our citizens and our visitors safe.”

Health officials requested 30 additional Ebola testing kits from the CDC, ensuring that all of the state’s 30 public hospitals have the ability to test patients believed to be infected, the governor’s office said. The health department also requested 100 additional units of high-level personal protective equipment to ensure the state is ready to backfill any county whose medical personnel develop a future need for those supplies.

“We know Florida’s hospitals and county health offices are prepared to identify and treat patients who may have Ebola,” Scott said. “While they are prepared on the local level, the state is requesting increased federal resources out of an abundance of caution for the unlikely event that we may have an extended response that warrants additional resources.”

The health department also is working in conjunction with the CDC to determine on a case-by-case basis whether testing for Ebola is necessary. The CDC already has shared detailed recommendations to the state’s hospitals to help detect suspected Ebola among those returned from affected countries, and prevention transmission of the virus within medical facilities.

Health officials also are providing training to counties on how to investigate and respond to people suspected of contracting the virus.

Thomas Eric Duncan travelled to Texas from Liberia last month after contracting the virus, and became one of the first cases to be diagnosed in the United States. He’s currently in critical condition in a Dallas hospital, according to published reports.

Five other Americans returned home after contracting Ebola, including a missionary doctor, and a television news cameraman. One American, Patrick Sawyer, has died, after seeking treatment in a Nigerian hospital.