As U.S. Ebola Fears Widen, Reports of Possible Cases Grow

NEW YORK TIMES                 OCT. 5 2014

by MANNY FERNANDEZ and ROBERT PEAR 

But increased attention about the virus has jangled nerves around the country, particularly among West African immigrant communities and recent travelers to that region, and placed health care workers on a kind of high alert. “We expect that we will see more rumors, or concerns, or possibilities of cases,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the federal C.D.C., said Saturday. “Until there is a positive laboratory test, that is what they are — rumors and concerns.”

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Passengers of United Flight 998 left customs holding doctor's notes at Newark Liberty International Airport Saturday afternoon after a passenger on the flight was tested for possible exposure to the Ebola virus.  The passenger was later determined not to have Ebola. Credit Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

In the more than 100 inquiries the C.D.C. has received about possible Ebola, about 15 people were actually tested for the virus, officials at the disease centers said. In addition to doing their own testing on suspected cases, federal officials have helped more than a dozen laboratories around the United States do Ebola testing.ital said in a statement.

Obama administration officials said they believe that screening of passengers in the affected countries in Africa, by taking their temperature and requesting information about their activities, is the best way to prevent the virus from spreading to the United States. But they said Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of Homeland Security, is evaluating whether other measures, including more aggressive screening of arriving air passengers in the United States, might become necessary.

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