Ebola airport controls ‘too lax’

People who contract ebola in West Africa can get through airport screenings and onto a plane with a lie and a lot of ibuprofen, according to healthcare experts who believe more must be done to identify infected travellers.

At the very least, they said, travellers arriving from ebola-stricken countries should be screened for fever, which is currently done on departure from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

But such safeguards were not foolproof.

“The fever-screening instruments run low and aren’t that accurate,” said infection-control specialist, Sean Kaufman, president of Behavioral-Based Improvement Solutions, a biosafety company based in Atlanta.

“And people can take ibuprofen to reduce their fever enough to pass screening, and why wouldn’t they? If it will get them on a plane so they can come to the United States and get effective treatment after they’re exposed to ebola, wouldn’t you do that to save your life?”

Liberia said the first ebola patient to be diagnosed in the United States Thomas Eric Duncan, had lied on a questionnaire at the Monrovia airport about his exposure to an ebola patient.

He flew to Brussels and then Dulles airport outside Washington DC, before landing in Dallas on September 20.