The death of the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States comes at the same time the government said it plans to screen fliers for the deadly disease at the country's five busiest airports, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national visiting the country, died in a Dallas hospital early Wednesday morning after battling the illness since late last month.
His death sparked controversy over the hospital's decision to discharge Duncan initially, which not may have hurt his chance for survival and put others at risk for infection.
The five airports where patients will be screened for Ebola are John F. Kennedy in New York, Washington - Dulles near Washington D.C., Newark in New Jersey, Hartsfield - Jackson in Atlanta and O'Hare in Chicago, KTLA reported.
The reasoning behind choosing these airports is not only that they are the busiest, but 94 percent of travelers coming from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - where the virus is widespread - enter the country through those airports.
Travelers arriving from West Africa will be temperature screened and asked questions about contact with Ebola patients, among other security measures. If a person has a fever or if they indicated they may have been exposed to the virus, the passenger would be evaluated at the airport by a CDC public health worker, according to KTLA.
Those who check - out physically would be given information on how to monitor any symptoms of the disease they may get and will be asked to give their phone numbers and other contact information to authorities.
"It will give us the ability to isolate, evaluate and monitor travelers as needed," President Obama said Wednesday in a conference call, as reported by the Washington Post. "And we'll be able to collect any contact information that's necessary."
Concerns of Ebola contamination have led to cleaning crew strikes at New York's LaGuardia Airport, with workers arguing that they don't have protective gear to protect themselves from the disease.
