Ebola virus continues to spread as death toll reaches more than 4,000 while health officials from the U.S. and UK are going to start airport screenings.
No cure or any forms of vaccine are yet known to control the spread of the deadly hemorrhagic fever; however, many experts believe that it is through early detection that the infection can be prevented from worsening. World Health Organization (WHO) has recently confirmed that more than 8,000 individuals have been already infected and with that, a huge amount of fear tends to consume many parts of the world. In order to address the said problem, health officials in the U.S. recently announced that five of their major airports will be adapting an intensive way of screening while UK also plans the same thing.
New York's Kennedy International Airport already began with their new screening protocol on Saturday. The airport screening, which will also be introduced in other four airports next week involves the temperature taking and thorough assessment of passengers, especially those coming from the affected areas in West Africa. Other airports which include New Jersey's Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta will thoroughly evaluate its travelers in order to know if they potentially carry the Ebola virus or if they have been exposed to someone infected.
Aside from the U.S., the UK government is also adapting the new protocol after previously rejecting the idea of enhancing its airport screenings. With the increasing number of deaths, UK, believes that the screening will help offer an additional protection from the Ebola virus. Although many welcomed the new guidelines, there are still those who believe that it might not work and it is just for political reasons.
Moreover, for UK to assess their readiness in terms of the Ebola virus outbreak, a national exercise has been carried out. Several actors reportedly showed symptoms of the infection to test the emergency response of the government.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
