The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires airlines to collect contact information for all passengers from Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo amid two separate Ebola outbreaks in the African countries.
Beginning Thursday, airlines are required to collect and transfer contact information to the CDC for all travelers to the US who have been in the DRC or Guinea in the past 21 days prior to their arrival in the US, the CDC said Tuesday. On Friday, the CDC announced that it would route travelers from the two countries through six U.S. airports in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, the District of Columbia, Newark and Los Angeles.
The risk of Ebola spreading to the US is “extremely low,” the CDC said last week, but health officials are preparing their public health response protocols to ensure the disease does not enter the country.
“For timely public health follow-up, health officials must have immediate access to accurate and complete contact information for travelers arriving in the United States,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky in a statement. “Any delay in contacting exposed individuals can increase the likelihood of the disease spreading.”
Airlines must collect travelers’ names, addresses in the US, primary phone numbers, secondary or emergency phone numbers, and email addresses, the CDC said in a statement. It is “the minimum amount of information needed to reliably locate travelers,” the CDC added.
The information provided by travelers is “verified upon arrival by US government officials to ensure it is accurate and complete,” the CDC said. The agency noted that a February 2020 rule authorized the CDC to impose such a requirement on airlines.
“Air travel has the potential to transport people, some of whom may be exposed to communicable disease, around the world in less than 24 hours,” the CDC said. “In certain situations, public health officials may need to contact travelers arriving from an outbreak country, such as the Ebola outbreaks in the DRC and Guinea.”
The World Health Organization is responding to two Ebola outbreaks, one in the West African nation of Guinea and another in the DRC in Central Africa. Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, said on Monday that 13 cases of Ebola have been confirmed in Guinea, with four more likely.
The cases in Guinea currently appear to be occurring in the remote regions of N’Zerekore and Gueckedou in southern Guinea, Ryan said. He added that 99% of the approximately 500 people identified who have been exposed to the virus are being tracked. More than 1,100 people have been vaccinated against Ebola since its turnout last month, he added.
Separately, Ryan said eight cases, including four deaths, have been confirmed in DRC. No new cases have been reported as of Feb. 22, Ryan said.
Unlike the highly contagious coronavirus, which can be spread by people who have no symptoms, Ebola is believed to spread primarily through people who are already visibly ill. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus spreads through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of people who are sick or have died from the disease.
Ebola has an average death rate of 50%, although it can vary by outbreak, according to WHO.
The resurgence of Ebola in Guinea and the DRC is of particular concern to global health specialists as those countries are home to the two worst Ebola outbreaks in history. The outbreak in DRC declared in June lasted for almost two years. By the time it ended, there had been a total of 3,481 cases and 2,299 deaths, according to WHO.
The infamous Ebola outbreak in West Africa started in Guinea in 2014 before spreading across land borders into Sierra Leone and Liberia, WHO said. By the end of 2016, there were more than 28,000 cases, including more than 11,000 deaths, the WHO says.
During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the US CDC confirmed 11 cases of Ebola in the US, mainly among medical workers who had traveled to Africa to assist in the response.