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CDC issues Level 3 travel warning due to Ebola outbreak
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The CDC has issued a Level 3 travel warning to avoid nonessential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in response to the worsening Ebola outbreak.
It is also assisting with active screening efforts in West Africa to prevent people with Ebola from getting on planes. There are also CDC protocols in place to protect against further spread of the disease, such as notifying CDC of ill passengers on a plane before arrival, investigating ill travelers and quarantining ill passengers when necessary at the CDC Quarantine Stations located at ports of entry throughout the United States.
“This is the biggest and most complex Ebola outbreak in history,” CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, said during a media briefing. “It will take many months and it won’t be easy, but Ebola can be stopped. We know what needs to be done. CDC is surging our response and sending 50 additional disease control experts to the region in the next 30 days.”
Thomas Frieden
Currently, CDC staff in the three West African countries are tracking the Ebola epidemic to identify cases, respond to cases and prevent future cases by improving contact tracing, infection control and health communication. The CDC is working with WHO and other partners to control the outbreak and build stronger systems to prevent, detect and stop Ebola and other outbreaks.
Frieden said there are significant challenges, primarily the established health systems, which are not highly functioning, and the lack of understanding in some areas, which has led to hostility and violence against groups, including the CDC, that are trying to respond to the outbreak.
According to Frieden, the CDC has strong protocols in place to prevent spread of Ebola in the United States in the unlikely event that a traveler enters the country with Ebola. He also said Ebola is not contagious until symptoms appear, and it is transmitted only through direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected, symptomatic person or exposure to objects that have been contaminated with infected secretions.