Ibuprofen Is All It Takes to Avoid Airport Ebola Screening: Experts

Free Republic

People who contract Ebola in West Africa can get through airport screenings and onto a plane with a lie and a lot of ibuprofen, according to healthcare experts who believe more must be done to identify infected travelers. At the very least, they said, travelers arriving from Ebola-stricken countries should be screened for fever, which is currently done on departure from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. But such safeguards are not foolproof.

“The fever-screening instruments run low and aren’t that accurate,” said infection control specialist Sean Kaufman, president of Behavioral-Based Improvement Solutions, a biosafety company based in Atlanta. “And people can take ibuprofen to reduce their fever enough to pass screening, and why wouldn’t they? If it will get them on a plane so they can come to the United States and get effective treatment after they’re exposed to Ebola, wouldn’t you do that to save your life?” On Thursday, Liberia said the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed in the United States had lied on a questionnaire at Monrovia’s airport about his exposure to an Ebola patient. Thomas Eric Duncan’s arrival and hospitalization in Dallas have underscored how much U.S. authorities are relying on their counterparts in West African countries to screen passengers and contain the worst Ebola outbreak on record.

Virologist Heinz Feldmann of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has studied Ebola for years and helped develop an experimental Ebola vaccine. He told Science magazine in September that airport screeners in Monrovia, where he spent three weeks, “Don’t really know how to use the devices.” He said he saw screeners record temperatures of 32 degrees C (90 F), which is so low it “is impossible for a living person.” Feldmann said in an email that according to his colleagues who have returned from Liberia in the last few days procedures for taking temperatures and doing clinical checks have improved.

Obama Defers Deportation of Liberians On Same Day TX Ebola Patient Enters Hospital

Gateway Pundit

Sept. 19 – Man leaves Liberia
Sept. 20 – Visitor arrives in Dallas, Texas. The city of Dallas says the patient moved to Dallas.
Sept. 24 – Symptoms begin
Sept. 26 – Man seeks care in Dallas but is sent home with antibiotics
Sept. 26 – Obama issues a Deferred Enforced Departure Memorandum for Liberians
Sept. 28 – Man is transported to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital by ambulance.
Oct. 1 – Man is isolated and in serious condition – organs are failing.

On Tuesday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the first case of Ebola in the United States. A Liberian visitor to Dallas was transported to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital by ambulance on Sunday.

Barack Obama issued a presidential memorandum on September 26th to defer deportations of Liberians, the same day the Texas Ebola patient first visited the hospital.

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY

SUBJECT: Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberians

Since 1991, the United States has provided safe haven for Liberians who were forced to flee their country as a result of armed conflict and widespread civil strife, in part through granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The armed conflict ended in 2003 and conditions improved such that TPS ended effective October 1, 2007. President Bush then deferred the enforced departure of the Liberians originally granted TPS. I extended that grant of Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) to September 30, 2014. I have determined that there are compelling foreign policy reasons to again extend DED to those Liberians presently residing in the United States under the existing grant of DED.

Pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct the foreign relations of the United States, I have determined that it is in the foreign policy interest of the United States to defer for 24 months the removal of any Liberian national, or person without nationality who last habitually resided in Liberia, who is present in the United States and who is under a grant of DED as of September 30, 2011. The grant of DED only applies to an individual who has continuously resided in the United States since October 1, 2002, except for Liberian nationals, or persons without nationality who last habitually resided in Liberia:

(1) Who are ineligible for TPS for the reasons provided in section 244(c)(2)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. 1254a(c)(2)(B);

(2) Whose removal you determine is in the interest of the United States;

(3) Whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable grounds to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States;

(4) Who have voluntarily returned to Liberia or his or her country of last habitual residence outside the United States;

(5) Who were deported, excluded, or removed prior to the date of this memorandum; or

(6) Who are subject to extradition.

Accordingly, I direct you to take the necessary steps to implement for eligible Liberians:

(1) A deferral of enforced departure from the United States for 24 months from October 1, 2014; and

(2) Authorization for employment for 24 months from October 1, 2014.

BARACK OBAMA

First Case Of Ebola Diagnosed In United States

The man became infected in Liberia and then travelled to Texas, where he remains in strict isolation in hospital.

 

The Texas hospital where the unnamed patient is being treated

Sky News

The first case of ebola has been diagnosed in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed.

The patient is a man who became infected in Liberia and flew to Texas, where he is now being treated in hospital, a CDC spokesman said.

He is not a healthcare worker, the spokesman added.

The Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas said earlier it had placed a person in strict isolation based on their “symptoms and recent travel history”.