The United States has imposed restrictions on all travellers entering from the three west African countries worst affected by the Ebola outbreak, processing them through one of five American airports where there is enhanced screening.
The department of homeland security said all passengers travelling from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea would from tomorrow have to travel through JFK airport in New York, Dulles near Washington DC, O'Hare in Chicago, Newark in New Jersey, or Hartsfield -Jackson airport in Atlanta.
JFK has been checking the temperature of travellers and assessing passengers for other Ebola-related symptoms since October 11th and the other airports since October 16th.
Travel bans
Some Republicans want the administration to go further, imposing travel bans on people arriving from the Ebola-affected countries, but the move has been resisted by US president
Barack Obama
, who sees it as counterproductive
In a separate development, a senior World Health Organisation official said today that tens of thousands of doses of experimental Ebola vaccines could be available for "real-world" testing in west Africa as soon as January as long as they are deemed safe,.
Dr Marie Paule Kieny, an assistant director general at the WHO, said clinical trials that were either under way or planned in Europe, Africa and the US were expected to produce preliminary safety data on two vaccines by December.
If the vaccines were declared safe, they would be used in trials in west Africa beginning in January to test their effectiveness among tens of thousands – but not millions – of people.
Vaccination
“I’m not suggesting at this moment that there would be mass vaccination campaigns at population levels starting in 2015,” she said, adding that none of the volunteers who took part in the trials could accidentally contract Ebola from the testing.
The Ebola outbreak in west Africa has already killed more than 4,500 people, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, since it emerged 10 months ago. Experts have said the world could face 10,000 new cases a week in two months if authorities do not take stronger steps to fight the deadly virus.
In Sierra Leone, the government said the number of infected people in the country’s western region was soaring, with more than 20 Ebola deaths a day. That region is on the opposite side of the country from where the first Ebola cases emerged.
In Spain, doctors said a second and conclusive test showed a Spanish nursing assistant infected with Ebola in Madrid was completely clear of the virus. Teresa Romero (44) had battled for her life after she tested positive on October 6th. – (Additional reporting, PA)
