NIH: Ebola screenings at US airports ‘on the table’

A high-ranking official at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said Monday that the government is considering tougher screening of passengers for Ebola at U.S. airports after the country’s first confirmed case.

Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview with CNN that strengthened Ebola screening was “on the table” as officials move to calm domestic fears about the deadly virus spreading.

{mosads}”The discussion that is under way right now, and all options are going to be looked at, is what kind of screening do you do on the entry end, namely, when people come in here right now,” Fauci said.

“And that’s something that’s on the table now, and the discussion is, is that extra added layer of screening going to be worth the resources that are put into doing it? That hasn’t been decided right now,” he added. 

Lawmakers have pushed for additional screening or even a travel ban on flights from countries battling the Ebola virus.

Concerns that the disease could spread to the U.S. were heightened after Thomas Eric Duncan, who flew from Liberia to Dallas, with a connection in Washington, in late September and later became the first confirmed patient with Ebola in the U.S.

The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on the Ebola outbreak on Friday at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said the hearing would discuss the “interconnected nature of our world,” where “threats to the homeland are only a flight away.”

Obama administration officials have argued that it would be impractical to close off flights between the U.S. and countries affected by Ebola because doing so would make it harder to move relief supplies and health workers. They say that would hamper the international response and put more Americans at risk from the outbreak.

Fauci said that screening for Ebola symptoms is already in place for passengers attempting to board flights from affected areas and defended those measures.

“Well, first of all, there is clear cut screening going on the exit end,” he said.

“If you and I went to an airport in Monrovia, Liberia, right now and tried to get on the plane and we had a fever or were sick, we would not be allowed on the plane.”