Expanding an old weapon in the struggle against infectious disease, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has opened 10 new quarantine stations at major ports of entry in the past 18 months and plans to add several more in the coming year.
The US now has medical officers at 17 airports and at the busy border crossing in El Paso, Texas, to screen people entering the country for communicable diseases. They are particularly alert for travelers showing symptoms of the avian influenza virus that has spread across Asia and into Europe.
The avian flu strain, known as H5N1, has forced the slaughter of millions of chickens and other fowl and has caused 67 human deaths as of late last week, according to the World Health Organization. The virus, while affecting huge numbers of birds, is not yet efficiently transmitted among people. But medical authorities fear that the virus could mutate into a lethal human flu strain and touch off a global pandemic that could kill millions.
William MacKenzie, the medical officer at the CDC quarantine station at Los Angeles International Airport, said things were quiet in his small office. He receives one or two reports a week from international airlines reporting passengers with flu-like symptoms. Those travelers are examined and asked about where they had traveled and whether they had contact with live birds.
No such cases have arisen, MacKenzie said, but if one did, the passenger would not be detained but referred to a local hospital. Because there are few cases of human-to-human infection, the remaining passengers on the aircraft would not be quarantined, he said.
MacKenzie said flight crews have been told to closely monitor passengers for obvious signs of flu -- fever, sneezing, coughs -- and carry masks for sick passengers to limit the spread of airborne germs. In rare cases, he said, airlines are asked to isolate ill passengers and then escort them to quarantine officers at the airport.
But because so few people have become sick from the new avian virus, there is no aggressive surveillance of inbound air passengers, he said.
"At this point, we're not actively looking for sniffles and coughs," MacKenzie said. "Of course, that could change if there was a change in the transmission pattern and human-to-human infection becomes common."
The US' quarantine program essentially died in the 1970s with the eradication of smallpox and several other communicable diseases. But the perceived need for greater medical surveillance at US borders has gained new attention since 2001, when the anthrax attacks brought a new fear of biological terrorism.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying
Ukrainian drone attacks overnight on several Russian power and energy facilities forced capacity reduction at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and set a fuel export terminal in Ust-Luga on fire, Russian officials said yesterday. A drone attack on the Kursk nuclear plant, not far from the border with Ukraine, damaged an auxiliary transformer and led to 50 percent reduction in the operating capacity at unit three of the plant, the plant’s press service said. There were no injuries and a fire sparked by the attack was promptly extinguished, the plant said. Radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding
‘DELIBERATE PROVOCATION’: Pyongyang said that Seoul had used a machine gun to fire at North Korean troops who were working to permanently seal the southern border South Korea fired warning shots at North Korean soldiers that briefly crossed the heavily fortified border earlier this week, Seoul said yesterday after Pyongyang accused it of risking “uncontrollable” tensions. South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has sought warmer ties with the nuclear-armed North and vowed to build “military trust,” but Pyongyang has said it has no interest in improving relations with Seoul. Seoul’s military said several North Korean soldiers crossed the border on Tuesday while working in the heavily mined demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas. The incursion prompted “our military to fire warning shots,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff
RSS