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The United States on Monday announced tighter health measures to prevent the spread of Ebola, including enhanced airport screening for travellers arriving from affected regions and a temporary suspension of visa services in some areas.
The public health measures shared by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) follow the World Health Organisation’s declaration of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as an international public health emergency.
Speaking during a briefing, the incident manager overseeing the CDC’s Ebola response, Satish Pillai, confirmed that an American citizen was infected after exposure linked to work activities in the DRC.
“The person developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive late Sunday,” Pillai said.
He stated that arrangements were being made to transfer the infected individual to Germany for treatment, while efforts to evacuate six other people for medical observation were in the works.
Pillai said about 25 personnel are attached to the CDC’s field office in the DRC, with plans to deploy another senior technical coordinator to support response efforts on the ground.
“At this time, CDC assesses the immediate risk to the general US public as low, but we will continue to evaluate the evolving situation and may adjust public health measures as additional information becomes available,” the agency said in a statement.
As part of the strengthened precautions, the CDC said travellers entering the United States would undergo additional screening measures at airports. The agency also announced temporary entry restrictions for non-US passport holders who had recently travelled to Uganda, the DRC, or South Sudan within the last 21 days.
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Kampala confirmed that visa services had been temporarily suspended, noting that affected applicants had already been informed of the development.
