Atlanta airport takes precautions against Ebola

Q. What is being done in West Africa to prevent the Ebola virus from spreading to the United States?

A. CDC has trained and assisted health officials and workers at West African airports with screening passengers. Before anyone boards a flight, their temperature is taken with an infrared thermometer.

All passengers must also fill out a questionnaire that asks questions such as, have you attended a recent funeral, or do you have a family member or visitor who has had a fever or shown other symptoms. A positive fever test or answers to questions means the passenger is questioned and evaluated further and is not allowed to board the jet.

Q. What is being done in Atlanta to prevent the spread of the Ebola?

A. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says its workers are trained to conduct visual reviews of passengers entering the U.S. for “general overt signs of illnesses,” and passengers may be questioned. When a traveler with a possible disease is identified, workers are supposed to contact the CDC and local health authorities for help with medical evaluation.

On Wednesday, workers began handing out Ebola information leaflets to travelers with passports from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Q. What is being done on flights to prevent the spread of Ebola?

A. Delta Air Lines works with medical professionals and provides information to flight crews. Airlines may deny boarding to air travelers with serious contagious diseases.

The CDC recommends that crew members take precautions, such as asking sick travelers whether they were in a country with an Ebola outbreak.

Q. What should you do if you are returning to the U.S. from an area with an outbreak?

A. Monitor your health for 21 days. Seek medical care if you develop a fever or symptoms, which could include fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, unexplained bruising or bleeding, rash, and internal and/or external bleeding. Tell your doctor about your recent travel and symptoms before you go to the office or emergency room.

Sources: CDC, CBP, Delta, AJC archives, research.

People flying out of the Ebola-stricken nations of West Africa can expect a health check before they board the plane, but all they will receive when they step off at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is a leaflet and a long look from customs officers.

Passengers are not screened in Atlanta unless they show symptoms of the virus, such as a fever, or come forward of their own accord, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Those with symptoms will be taken to an isolated “quarantine” area in the airport run by the CDC, where they will be checked and, if need be, taken to the hospital.

Given that scenario, the onus of identifying infected people largely falls upon the infected people themselves — they need to come forward voluntarily — or on the sharp eyes of customs workers.

Concern about Ebola has escalated after the emergence Tuesday of the first case diagnosed in the U.S. — a man who had flown from Liberia to Dallas. He remains hospitalized there in serious but stable condition.

Health experts say airline passengers face little chance of contracting Ebola during a flight. Ebola is spread through contact with bodily fluids and is not transmitted through the air, as with flu or other illnesses.

On Wednesday, customs workers at the Atlanta airport started handing out Ebola information leaflets to travelers with passports from West African countries that are combating Ebola, including Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to Customs and Border Protection. Information on Ebola is also displayed on posters and TV monitors in the customs area.

“There’s a heightened awareness,” said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.

Atlanta has its own particular concerns, being the home of a major international airport that is also a crossroads for many domestic air travelers.

CDC officials say the most effective way to keep Ebola out of the United States is to stop it in West Africa. Enhanced screening should take place there but is less necessary at U.S. airports, according to an email from Skinner. “Only a small percentage of travelers from these countries arrive on direct flights; thus, the number of travelers found to have Ebola through enhanced screening would be very low,” he said.

Georgia and metro Atlanta have among the highest populations of African-born people in the country, making the region a potential destination for African travelers. About 68,000 live in metro Atlanta, according to the U.S. Census.

On Wednesday, the CDC laid out the precautions being taken at airports across the country, hoping to ease public anxiety while not setting unrealistic expectations.

“As long as the epidemic continues in West Africa, it’s very likely we will see additional cases like the one in Texas in the U.S., and that could include Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport,” Skinner said. “But there’s lots of steps we’re taking to prevent an infected traveler from arriving here in the U.S.”

One daily flight from West Africa to Atlanta

Right now, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines flies the only scheduled nonstop passenger flight from West Africa to Atlanta; it departs from Lagos, Nigeria. That Boeing 767 flies daily and can hold 261 passengers, according to Delta officials.

Nigeria has had about 20 cases of Ebola so far, with eight deaths, far fewer than countries such as Liberia, where at least 1,830 people have died. The CDC has issued a Level 2 Alert regarding travel to Nigeria, recommending that passengers “practice enhanced protections.”

U.S. Customs officials said they will not routinely hand out Ebola leaflets to people flying in from Nigeria. If the people inquire about the disease, they will receive one, officials said.

Even if an infected passenger does not fly directly to Atlanta, they still may make their way here through connecting flights.

“Maybe they come from there to Paris, Paris to Atlanta,” said Customs and Border Protection spokesman Sean Crep.

The CDC is working with customs to enhance workers’ ability to recognize and report Ebola symptoms in travelers.

‘People in full gear at the airports’

On Wednesday, a team of 10 CDC experts in Texas began working with health officials to investigate the Ebola case there. The team will help ensure the Dallas hospital uses appropriate infection control measures as well as interview the patient and any close contacts to find other people who may be at risk.

People infected with the virus are not contagious until they begin showing symptoms. Therefore officials do not believe passengers on the plane carrying the infected man from Liberia were at risk of infection. The man had been screened for fever before boarding and was not yet sick and infectious.

Dr. Omer Pasi, a CDC epidemiologist and a leader in the Congolese community in Atlanta, just returned from trips to West Africa.

“They have people in full gear at the airports screening people,” he said.