The pseudonym "Philo Vaihinger" has been abandoned. All posts have been and are written by me, Joseph Auclair.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Looks like that Dallas patient is not an America but a Liberian national

US Visas Held By 13,500 People In Three Ebola Countries

Roughly 13,500 people from the Ebola-stricken countries of Sierra Leon, Guinea and Liberia have visas to visit the United States, according to federal data.

The data doesn’t show how many of those people are already in the United States, but visitors from those countries should be excluded until they can show they’re free of Ebola, said Jennifer Vaughan, policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that pushes for low-scale immigration.

“It would be reasonable [for the president] to designate Ebola as a communicable disease of public health significance. 

"That would enable the State Department to impose tighter restrictions on visitors” from countries with Ebola outbreaks, she said.

Under current policies, only people with obvious Ebola symptoms are excluded by border officials. 

But a person can be infected with the disease, and not show any symptoms, for up to 21 days.

On Sept. 30, federal officials announced that a Liberian had flown into the United States on Sept. 20, and had began to show obvious symptoms of the disease on the 24th. 

Disease-carriers can transmit the disease once they have symptoms.

The Liberian is now being treated in a Dallas hospital, and federal officials are trying to contact everyone who was in contact with the Liberian. 

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