Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (AP/Photo)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday that all travelers will be monitored for 21 days after arriving in the U.S. from the three West Africans countries where Ebola is spreading.
Starting Monday, each traveler from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will be given a “care kit” that includes a thermometer and instructions for how to use it as well as a description of possible Ebola symptoms and what to do if any of them develop.
Such travelers, who most likely will include health-care workers assisting in the Ebola fight and journalists, will be required to take their temperatures twice daily for 21 days and report the result to the state health department where they reside.
“These new measure will give an additional level of safety,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director in a national media briefing. “We have to keep our guard up.”
About 150 people are believed to travel to the U.S. daily from the three West African countries. The travelers already are having their temperatures taken when they leave Africa and when they arrive at certain U.S. airports.