Texas Governor Rick Perry has urged for the federal government to improve screening procedures applied to all points of entry to the United States in order to avoid the entrance of more Ebola-infected patients in the country. The procedures proposed by him would include extensive information about all persons entering the country from the areas affected by the epidemic, and also checking them for fever. The Governor has called for the establishment of fully equipped and staffed quarantine stations anywhere people could enter the US, CNN reports.
Governor Perry has signed an executive order for creating a new body, called the Texas Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response, with the goal of studying the state’s plans for dealing with outbreaks of dangerous diseases such as Ebola, and improving them where necessary. The final goal of the task force is to enhance the state’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to a possible outbreak, and stop the spread of the disease.
The Governor made his announcement after another Ebola patient has arrived on American soil. Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance cameraman who has contracted the disease while covering the West African epidemic, has been taken to a hospital in Nebraska for isolation and treatment. His arrival in the US has reminded officials of the possibility of more infected individuals to enter the country, and the possible means of detecting them as early as possible.
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Government officials are talking about enhancing the screening process of the travelers entering the US through its airports, including taking their temperatures. The problem is that most of the possibly infected people don’t come from West Africa directly – most of them go through a series of stops before reaching the US. Thomas Eric Duncan, for example, has left the Liberian airport Monrovia for Casablanca, where he boarded a plane for London, and finally through Atlanta he reached Dallas, Texas.