--- title: JFK Begins Screening Airline Passengers for Ebola description: But more needs to be done to combat the disease in West Africa to ensure it doesn't spread to the West, say some canonical: https://time.com/3494333/ebola-screenings-airport-jfk/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-11T15:24:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:43:59.975Z article:section: Health og:title: JFK Begins Screening Airline Passengers for Ebola og:description: But more needs to be done to combat the disease in West Africa to ensure it doesn't spread to the West, say some og:url: https://time.com/3494333/ebola-screenings-airport-jfk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6322eb774954bdf3/69876039e53aba7a514d4f73/jfk-airport-ebola-screening.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4096 og:image:height: 2304 og:image:alt: JFK Ebola Screening og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: JFK Begins Screening Airline Passengers for Ebola twitter:description: But more needs to be done to combat the disease in West Africa to ensure it doesn't spread to the West, say some twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6322eb774954bdf3/69876039e53aba7a514d4f73/jfk-airport-ebola-screening.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # JFK Begins Screening Airline Passengers for Ebola > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=325662f2-e7ce-4868-a963-63fae9def6d8&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola [Watch (HLS stream): Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EJ3m56cA.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2014-10-02. Health officials in the US are using a method known as contact tracing, to see who is at risk from Ebola._ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 11, 2014 3:24 PM UTC  A US Customs and Border Protection Officer conducts enhanced Ebola screening at JFK International Airport, in New York City on Oct. 10, 2014. A US Customs and Border Protection Officer conducts enhanced Ebola screening at JFK International Airport, in New York City on Oct. 10, 2014. Donna Burton—US Customs and Border Protection/EPA by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 11, 2014 3:24 PM UTC Enhanced [Ebola screenings](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/nyregion/in-us-screening-for-ebola-jfk-is-on-front-lines.html?src=twr) began Saturday at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport as authorities moved to ensure passengers potentially carrying the virus don’t make it into the United States. Anyone traveling from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone will be singled out by Customs and Border Protection, who will take their temperature with a non-contact thermometer and ask them a series of questions, the New York _Times_ reports. Kennedy is the first of five American airports planning to tighten screening protocols in an effort to protect the U.S. from the disease’s possible spread. But health officials warned that the only way to stop Ebola is to defeat it in West Africa. Still, experts say the state of medical care in the U.S. and the current precautions mean that the likelihood of widespread infection here is very low. “The chances of seeing anything like the calamity in western Africa is profoundly remote,” said Dr. Irwin Redlener, the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and a special adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/nyregion/in-us-screening-for-ebola-jfk-is-on-front-lines.html?src=twr)\] ## Transcript Now that the first case of Ebola has been diagnosed on American soil, what's next? How can we keep the virus from spreading? Health officials are now turning to a process known as contact tracing to figure out who else might have been exposed to the virus. The likeliest candidates are the medical technicians who treated him. That's because Ebola is spread by direct contact with bodily fluids, which health workers could have come in contact with while treating the patient. Beyond that are the patient's family members or people who have been living in close quarters with him since he developed the symptoms, including fever. Vomiting or diarrhea. These people will be monitored for 21 days, which is the incubation period of Ebola, to see if they develop similar symptoms. They won't be quarantined, but they might be asked to avoid traveling out of the country and spending time in crowded public areas. If anyone in either of these rings appears infected. Health officials will extend their monitoring to include anyone those people have been in contact with. Including their family members, school classmates, or work colleagues, until no more Ebola symptoms are discovered. Beyond that, if people in this ring appear infected, they too would be monitored for symptoms for 21 days, and the analysis would spread to their contacts. The passengers on the patient's flights from Liberia to the US aren't considered at high risk of exposure, since he was not experiencing symptoms then. Of course, all of this depends on honest and accurate information from the patient and his contacts about where they have been and with whom. Something that has been an issue in West Africa. There the stigma against Ebola has led patients to flee health volunteers who are attempting to trace contacts or fail to report people they have interacted with. 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