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 Enhanced screening will start on Monday for the 15 to 20 travelers
who arrive daily from Mali, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security said in a
statement.
"The CDC recommended this measure because there have been a number
of confirmed cases of Ebola in Mali in recent days, and a large
number of individuals may have been exposed to those cases," it
said.
The decision comes as a surgeon from Sierra Leone is being treated
for Ebola in the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. A hospital
spokesman said on Sunday he was still in extremely critical
condition after being airlifted from West Africa
There are no direct flights from Mali to the United States. Mali
joins Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia as countries whose travelers
face enhanced entry screening, health and Ebola assessments on
arrival in the United States.
An imam, or Muslim religious leader, from neighboring Guinea died in
Mali in late October. The sick man was never tested, but his case
led to a chain of confirmed deaths in Mali from Ebola.
Authorities are trying to trace more than 400 potential fresh
contacts. Mali had appeared to have contained its first Ebola case,
a girl who died in October.
Mali is the sixth country to have confirmed Ebola in West Africa,
which is battling the world's worst epidemic of the hemorrhagic
fever on record. Ebola has claimed more than 5,000 victims, almost
all from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
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Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national, died in the United States
from the disease.
As part of enhanced screening, travelers from Mali will be subject
to a 21-day monitoring and movement program. It includes twice-daily
temperature and symptom checks in coordination with public health
authorities.
The CDC and Homeland Security will work with airlines to ensure that
travelers from Mali are routed to the five U.S. airports already
performing Ebola screening. They are New York's John F. Kennedy,
Washington's Dulles, Chicago's O’Hare, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta
and Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Peter Cooney and Eric Walsh)
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