Airports to begin screening travelers for Ebola

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – By this weekend, one U.S. airport will start screening passengers arriving from West Africa in the wake of the Ebola outbreak, and by next week, four more U.S. airports will be doing the same thing.

It will start Saturday at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, which has nearly half of all such passengers.

Next week the screenings will take place at Dulles International Airport outside the nation's capital, Newark Liberty International Airport in northern New Jersey, O'Hare International Airport in Chicago and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Ninety-four percent of all travelers from West Africa enter the U.S. through those five airports.

Jacksonville International Airport is not on that list, but travelers say they are still being cautious.

"I don't think it's going to have that much of an impediment, but again, at the end of the day, if it's about patient safety and public safety, I support it," said Holly Snow, who was flying home from Jacksonville to Atlanta on Thursday.

It means a new airport process for people arriving from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three countries hardest hit by the epidemic. The passengers will be taken to a quarantine section, have their temperatures taken with a gun-like, non-contact thermometer, and have to fill out a questionnaire, answering questions about whether or not they've been exposed to anyone with Ebola.

If there are any red flags, they'll be evaluated by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention public health officer on site.

"I believe that we need to take every precaution that's necessary in order to protect the public safety, because obviously this is a major concern," Snow said. "If it's going to protect me and my family and other passengers, I'm a for it."

The CDC said the goal is to stop anyone with warning signs from getting past the airport gates and into the U.S. public before they can possibly spread the virus any further.

"I mean, it's a concern, but we have to keep on living," traveler Nick Iuliucci said.

Iuliucci said he's OK with the extra precautions, and doesn't expect them to affect him much.

"It wasn't that much of a concern for me because I expect it to be more along the lines of people that are coming from certain countries," he said. "So I expect them to isolate them a little bit more instead of just doing a broad spec for everyone."

Someone with the virus can still come to the U.S. and show no signs of Ebola because it can take up to 21 days for someone to feel sick. Plus, there are more ways than ever for people to cross communities, cross borders, cross oceans and spread a virus like Ebola.

But passengers say these additional screenings are a good start.

Doctors prepared to isolate patients if necessary

Meanwhile, doctors say they plan to follow a checklist from the CDC to isolate a person until they can get him or her safely to the hospital. Even though there hasn't been a case in the northeast Florida area, doctors here are still prepared.

Dr. Ashraf Affan said there is a specific room where a child would be taken immediately if he or she came to Angel Kids Pediatrics with Ebola symptoms.

"We take very quick measures," Affan said. "Our staff is very well-educated, even if this is something that you know we cannot wait, we cannot just put it in the regular queue for the visit. Those people will be given a priority."

It's clear just by looking around Affan's office that awareness about Ebola is a priority from the check-in desk to the exam room. And it's not just clients whom Angel Kids Pediatrics is trying to share information with, but also staff members.

"When we talk to our parents or our staff, we tell them, 'Be more careful,' for anybody who is calling with a travel history, say like, just came from overseas," Affan said.

Family Care Partners in Arlington is also relying on info from the CDC to help spot symptoms. The organization sent a checklist of what to do and how to handle patients as they come into facilities, what to do to get their temperature taken and see different signs and symptoms.

"So we're going to be following that checklist and then doing what we can to isolate that person as much as possible and then transfer them to a safer environment at a hospital," said Andy Stansfield, of Family Care Partners.

The office said with many other types of infectious diseases, the list specific to Ebola symptoms is helpful.

"So it did a lot to give us a step-by-step approach, make it very, very easy and not have to come up with an entirely new policy for something new like that," Stansfield said.

Between the CDC's help and just being alert, those at Family Care Partners said they are confident they can handle a patient with Ebola symptoms.

"In the end, I think we feel very, very comfortable with the way that we practice here and taking the right precautions in getting those types of things," Stansfield said.