Tour de vis at the airport. The United States announced Thursday that it will strengthen the screening procedures imposed on travelers from Uganda, due to the Ebola epidemic that is raging there. From this Friday, all travelers entering the country by plane and who have passed through Uganda in the previous 21 days will have to transit through one of the five airports – New York, Newark, Atlanta, Chicago and Washington – where the Centers for Disease are located. Control and Prevention (CDC) and Border Patrol will provide controls, the State Department said.
The CDC, the country’s leading federal health agency, issued an Ebola warning after the Uganda Ministry of Health declared an epidemic on September 20 in Mubende district. WHO on Wednesday listed 63 confirmed and probable cases of Ebola in the African country, including 29 deaths, making it the 12th largest outbreak on record.
No patients identified in the United States to date
According to the CDC, this appears to be limited to five districts in central Uganda. But “vaccines used successfully (in the past) they are not effective against the type of Ebola virus responsible for this outbreak, “World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Wednesday.
As of Thursday, “no suspected, probable or confirmed cases (of Ebola) linked to this outbreak have been reported in the United States or other countries outside of Uganda,” the CDC said. There are no direct flights from Uganda to the United States, but the health agency said screening of all travelers who have been there is critical to preventing the spread of the disease.
Washington had already established strict control procedures in 2014 after a previous major Ebola outbreak in Africa. Eleven people had to be treated for the disease in the United States, two had died.
