WASHINGTON – The United States launched border screening for swine flu exposure Monday morning as the European Union advised against nonessential travel and China, Russia and Taiwan moved to quarantine visitors amid a surging global concern about a possible pandemic.
Richard Vesser, acting head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, revealed that U.S. authorities were starting to undertake "passive screening" at its borders. He restated the Obama administration's call of Sunday for people to stay calm and reported that U.S. border officials would be "asking people about fever and illness, looking for people who are ill."
Complicating response strategies internationally was what a World Health Organization official described as difficulty experts were having in assessing precisely the nature of the threat.
"These are the early days. It's quite clear that there is a potential for this virus to become a pandemic and threaten globally," said Peter Cordingley, a WHO spokesman, who said it was spreading rapidly in Mexico and the southern United States. "But we honestly don't know. We don't know enough yet about how this virus operates. More work needs to be done."
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The U.S. declared a national health emergency Sunday in the midst of confusion about whether new numbers really meant ongoing infections — or just that health officials had missed something simmering for weeks or months. But the move allowed the government to ship roughly 12 million doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile to states in case they eventually need them.
President Barack Obama was set to address the health crisis later Monday in remarks to a meeting of the nation's top scientists. His administration sought on Sunday to strike a balance, informing Americans without panicking them.
1 comment:
The U.S. should make it mandatory that all incoming travelers from countries other than the U.S., esp. cross-border North American ones, that each and every traveler fill out a short form illness inquiry and itinerary sheet upon entry into the U.S. This form should be attached to all required forms, like Customs forms, signed and dated. This should be MANDATORY and effective immediately. This should be 1st step in to stage 1 monitoring at all U.S. Borders.
This enables identification and flow, and details of itineraries are necessary... you do the math.
Acceler8@rocketmail.com
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