O'Hare among five U.S. airports to beef up screening for Ebola

By Dan Hinkel, Dana Ferguson, Jon Hilkevitch, Chicago Tribune contact the reporter

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O'Hare to begin taking the temperatures of some passengers from Ebola-stricken countries.

Stepping up efforts to stop the Ebola epidemic from spreading widely in the United States, federal authorities and officials in Chicago on Wednesday announced preventive measures that will include more intense health screening for airline passengers arriving at O'Hare International Airport from West African countries.

While the screening measures will apply to few travelers to Chicago, they represent a new effort to block an epidemic that continues to plague West Africa after killing some 3,900 people, according to the World Health Organization. The effort was announced the same day the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. died at a Dallas hospital.

The travel precautions will start at Kennedy International Airport in New York on Saturday and come to O'Hare and three other airports next week. The airports account for almost all airline passengers to the U.S. from Ebola-stricken Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, a group that amounts to about 150 people per day, federal officials said.

Medical experts who have studied the disease's expansion said airport screening makes sense, even if it's for a small group of travelers and not a foolproof method of keeping the virus out. The epidemic is likely to continue spreading in West Africa while the U.S. and other countries will probably see isolated cases, they said.

Though he touted the airport measures, Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said the U.S. and Illinois will remain in some peril as long as the epidemic spreads in Africa.

"We understand that the outbreak is still really reeling out of control, so to speak, and we understand that until the outbreak is contained and under control in West Africa, there continues to be some risk to us in the U.S. and here in the state of Illinois," Hasbrouck said.

"If there's going to be another case on U.S. soil, we're one of five airports to likely have that passenger come through," Hasbrouck said. "With that, we can't speculate — we can just be prepared."

The airports where screening will begin include O'Hare, Kennedy, Washington's Dulles International, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and Newark Liberty International.

When screening starts at O'Hare, federal personnel will staff a triage station in the international arrivals area and run passports of passengers coming from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to determine whether they've been in affected regions, Hasbrouck said. Passengers will fill out questionnaires and may be subject to fever detection, he said. Temperatures will be taken with a non-contact thermometer, federal officials said.

Hasbrouck said the department is prepared to handle a case should a passenger with symptoms arrive at O'Hare. He said a passenger would be taken to a hospital for testing and treatment if he or she had been in an affected region, near a person with the disease and displayed symptoms.

No hospitals in Chicago have reported patients with Ebola symptoms, nor have they requested Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tests for the infection, Hasbrouck said.

Travelers are also being screened on departure from the West African nations, though health experts question the effectiveness of the measures. The man who died in Dallas — Thomas Eric Duncan, 42 — was able to fly to the U.S. from Liberia because he didn't have a fever when screened at the airport and filled out a questionnaire saying he hadn't been in contact with anyone infected. Liberian officials have said Duncan lied and had been in contact with a woman who later died of the disease.

Hasbrouck said there is a chance the domestic efforts may not catch all those who carry the virus because "some people lie."

Airports have screened people for disease on arrival during other epidemics, and it generally doesn't present major logistical issues, said Robert Murphy, a doctor at Northwestern University's medical school who studies the spread of disease. A person can have Ebola for weeks without showing symptoms, so the chances of catching someone with the disease are limited, he said.

"They're going to do this for a couple months and find that they don't find anybody," he said.

As officials rolled out their plan, Chicago aldermen proposed broader measures to prevent Ebola and other diseases from landing in the city. Under a proposal introduced by Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, and Ald. Michael Zalewski, 23rd, every passenger arriving at O'Hare or Midway International Airport on a flight from outside the U.S. would be required to fill out a questionnaire to determine whether their behavior or contacts before landing indicate a risk. Passengers designated as "at risk" could then be isolated for further testing by a medical professional.

Airlines would foot the cost of the screenings, Burke said in a news release.

"It is important that the city of Chicago move swiftly to put all reasonable precautions in place to avoid any possible danger because O'Hare Airport is such a busy hub not only for Chicago, but also the Midwest," Burke said.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel — who was scheduled to dial in to a White House conference call on Ebola prevention Wednesday afternoon with local, state and national authorities — did not voice an opinion on the aldermen's proposal.

Northwestern's Murphy said there's no need to screen travelers from outside West Africa.

Hasbrouck said he viewed the proposal as excessive.

"I think it is overkill," Hasbrouck said. "Can we screen for everything? No. Is it a waste of resources? Yes."

On the conference call, President Barack Obama promised to provide the necessary federal assistance to fight the disease, according to a transcript released by the White House.

"I'm confident that so long as we work together, and we're operating with an appropriate sense of urgency, that we will prevent an outbreak from happening here," Obama said.

There is currently very little risk of exposure to Ebola in the U.S., said Stephen Morse, an epidemiologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. Asked about a report that pizza delivery drivers feared going to the Dallas apartment complex where Duncan — the Ebola victim who died Wednesday — had stayed, Morse said people venturing outdoors right now generally face more likely perils than Ebola.

"I'd worry about the pizza deliveryman getting stuck in the elevator," he said.

Reuters and Tribune reporter John Byrne contributed.