--- title: Ebola Screening at Airports: CDC Looks at How Effective They Are description: Since August, 80,000 passengers have been screened for Ebola at various airports around the world. Here’s what health officials found canonical: https://time.com/3626156/ebola-screening-airports-cdc/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-10T14:49:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:14.112Z article:section: Health og:title: How Effective Is Screening for Ebola at Airports? og:description: Since August, 80,000 passengers have been screened for Ebola at various airports around the world. Here’s what health officials found og:url: https://time.com/3626156/ebola-screening-airports-cdc/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5500d4e12be97b49/698762c7428a9e27bfcc4be4/457062034.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: New York's JFK Airport Begins Screening Passengers For Ebola Virus og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Effective Is Screening for Ebola at Airports? twitter:description: Since August, 80,000 passengers have been screened for Ebola at various airports around the world. Here’s what health officials found twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5500d4e12be97b49/698762c7428a9e27bfcc4be4/457062034.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Effective Is Screening for Ebola at Airports? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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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=b8fccfab-1952-40bc-8710-7626a45d34c8&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Ebola Fighters in West Africa - TIME's Person of the Year 2014 [Watch (HLS stream): Ebola Fighters in West Africa - TIME's Person of the Year 2014](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/laroqNbt.m3u8) (10:47)  _Published 2014-12-10. Hundreds of doctors, nurses and health workers work every day to treat and contain the outbreak in the hot zone_  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Dec 10, 2014 2:49 PM UTC  A plane arrives at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) airport on October 11, 2014 in New York City. A plane arrives at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) airport on October 11, 2014 in New York City. Spencer Platt—Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Dec 10, 2014 2:49 PM UTC As the Ebola outbreak in West Africa escalated over the summer, the World Health Organization recommended airport screening as a way to contain spread of the disease. WHO advised that all people leaving the most severely affected countries—Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone—should have their temperatures taken and be asked about any Ebola-related symptoms they might have, including fever, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea. Since the program began in August, more than 80,000 passengers have been screened as they left these countries, 12,000 of them headed for the U.S. Do the screenings work? In a [report published in the _MMWR_](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm63e1209a1.htm?s%5Fcid=mm63e1209a1%5Fw), officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reveal the latest information from the program. Anyone with a fever or other symptoms—or who reported having a high risk of being exposed to Ebola, such as having contact with Ebola patients—was not allowed to fly. According to the CDC report, none of those who were denied boarding were diagnosed with Ebola. But two patients without symptoms when they left West Africa, Thomas Eric Duncan and Dr. Craig Spencer, eventually developed Ebola after arriving in the U.S. The _MMWR_ report also details the U.S.’s more stringent airport entry screening for all passengers arriving from the three affected countries. Beginning Oct. 11, all passengers coming to the U.S. from these countries were required to fly into one of five airports: John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, Washington-Dulles International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport or Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. They are also required to take their temperatures for 21 days, the incubation period for the Ebola virus, and report them to local health officials. The designated airports are equipped with trained public health personnel who meet passengers and provide them with a kit to help them record their temperatures, as well as educate them about who to call if they develop symptoms. From Oct. 11 to Nov. 10, 1, 993 passengers were screened this way, and 4.3% were referred to the CDC for additional evaluation. Seven people had symptoms and were referred to proper medical personnel, but none developed Ebola. “Using these processes to educate each traveler and then link the traveler to public health authorities for the duration of the incubation period is of critical importance to facilitate rapid detection of illness and implementation of appropriate public health control measures,” the authors write. But the most effective way to prevent the epidemic from spreading is to control it at its source. In a [separate _MMWR_ report](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm63e1209a3.htm?s%5Fcid=mm63e12059a3%5Fw), researchers at the CDC say that their first assessment of Ebola infection and control in Sierra Leone reveals many gaps. In a review of six of the 14 districts in Sierra Leone that are affected by Ebola, the CDC Ebola Response Team found that none had a dedicated infection control supervisor to oversee training and implementation of infection control procedures, such as wearing protective equipment and isolating patients. There were also no national, district or facility standards for infection control, and screening of patients for Ebola was inadequate. All districts also lacked sufficient personal protective equipment, the gear that is critical for protecting health care workers treating Ebola patients, and many did not have running water, enough chlorine bleach to sanitize contaminated objects, or incinerators for burning disposable medical waste. “An increasingly coordinated and comprehensive \[infection and prevention control\] program with district and health facility level support is urgently needed to prevent Ebola in districts where the prevalence is low and to strengthen the existing…response in areas with high prevalence of Ebola,” the CDC officials write. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] I have spent five weeks in Liberia over the past three months [ NOISE ] reporting on an outbreak of Ebola that, in the words of one Liberian doctor I met, threatened to erase his country from the map of Africa. Guys, look out. Ebola is a devastating disease [ NOISE ] and the reporting was both heart wrenching and horrifying. Have you touched him? Don't touch him. But for every time I wrote about rising death tolls, I met extraordinary men and women who risked everything from disease to distrust and even death, to stop Ebola from taking more lives. Ebola is very scary. You have to have courage. [ MUSIC ] One of the heights of Ebola. There was nowhere for anyone to go. There's dead bodies on the ground. [ MUSIC ] These are their stories. [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] [ NOISE ] Being a doctor in Liberia is just sacrificial from beginning to end. You're not making anything. It's almost like a volunteer job. That's not [ UNKNOWN ]. [ NOISE ] [ MUSIC ] My first experience as an Ebola patient the lab technician walked in with a spacesuit and I mean, he was taking every precaution not to touch and not to get infected himself. I could see the fear in his eyes. Eyes. [ MUSIC ] When the test results came back that evening and I was told that I was Ebola positive, something strange happened. I relaxed, okay, because I was happy it was not malaria. [ MUSIC ] Luckily we got. A place at Elwa Treatment Center, where they found a spot. Sadly, somebody had just passed and I was going to take their spot. Interestingly, they put me into a room where I had the guy who we assume I got the infection from. Lying right, right next to me. [ MUSIC ] At one time I was hiccupping with every breath, so they thought I, I, I wasn't gonna make it. And they were even discussing whether I would be cremated or buried. [ NOISE ] [ MUSIC ] I'm thankful to just be alive, because with such a close call, I consider myself like somebody who has come back from the dead. [ APPLAUSE ] [ NOISE [ My name is Katie Meyler and I'm the founder of More Than Me. [ MUSIC ] I wasn't really afraid for our girls or for More Than Me because it was in Lofa County, it was far away. And who is Esther? Where's Esther? [ MUSIC ] Eventually, it hit JFK Hospital, which is one of the main hospitals here in the capital, and that's when people started to get afraid. Everyone's thinking, if this thing gets to West Point, the country's in trouble, because it's the most densely populated area in West Africa. [ MUSIC ] So we got this ambulance specifically for West Point. And we pull up to Redemption Hospital and there pulling dead bodies out of Redemption. Doesn't seem like people are moving fast enough and like everyone has accepted. It feels like their families have accepted their death. [ MUSIC ] In this crazy scene of death and dying and dead bodies, and screaming and crying and mourning. Is this cute little three to four year old girl with her pink party dress on just sitting on the steps of this ambulance with no symptoms of Ebola. Do you wanna doll baby? Yeah, I'll bring you one. My name Katie. Nice to meet you. I love you. Her mom died and now the girl had nowhere to go. [ MUSIC ] Guideon. Yeah? Please, please keep her safe away from harm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I [ CROSSTALK ]. This was going on all over the place. I mean, I started to see it more and more. And she was the first child I got close to. And I was like, she cannot stay at Redemption Hospital cuz if this girl, she might have Ebola, she might not. If she doesn't have it, she's definitely gonna get it and most likely she'll die because there's no help here are Redemption. [ NOISE ] So that's what this house became. It was called Housing Observation and Pediatric Evaluation for 21 days. Laugh. [ LAUGH ] Laugh [ LAUGH ] Laugh. [ LAUGH ] Laugh. [ LAUGH ] Laugh. [ LAUGH ] So that was the first child. And one of the nurses brought her here. [ FOREIGN ] But only for like extreme emergencies, where like kids literally would be homeless. Laugh. [ LAUGH ] My name is Foday Galla. I happen to be the supervisor of the district number 13 ambulances. [ MUSIC ] And I believe it was my calling so once I'm called to do this, I always love to help people. [ MUSIC ] You have to have passion. You have to have feelings. You have to have care. [ MUSIC ] I actually got sick trying to help a family of eight. [ MUSIC ] That I really tried to help, but seven of them had to lose their life to the Ebola virus. [ NOISE ] [ UNKNOWN ] The worst part was that people that I moved in with in the ETU, they died. They died right before my eyes. [ NOISE ] So I feel good picking up people and driving them to the centers and seeing them coming out. So this is why, this is the reason why. Why I really love to help to take people to the center, have them treated, and have them come home to their families. [ MUSIC ] Hello. What I went through in life, some of those things have had impact on. Dr. Brown. My desire to help, to relieve people out of their suffering. There is a family of nine, nine. I think there were about 14 that got infected. And out of the 14, we have. Nine survivors. There are a lot of things I've really learned from this outbreak. One of which is being able to look around yourself and see what you can use that's available. To find a remedy to the situation. Than just sitting and waiting for a remedy from outside. What's in your power, how you can make use of what's available. [ MUSIC ] My name's Ella Watson- Stryker. I'm working with MSF as a health promoter, that means that my job is primarily focused on making sure that people have the information they need about Ebola. When you have countries where there is no functioning disease surveillance system, it means that a virus can circulate for months in a rural area without anyone noticing. Wasn't until a doctor was infected and died that someone started to say, wait a minute, this is not normal, we need to investigate. [ MUSIC ] This is something that we allow to happen. It will continue in this way until better systems are put in place. And if anything comes out of this outbreak, I hope, it's that we learn how to be better at looking for, at health status in rural and urban communities, both. In areas where people don't have good access to healthcare. [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] When. [ MUSIC ] We started having survivors here at the unit. Then people started coming to the E. T. U. in large numbers. What is your total number of releases? I know you are in one of those units that have released more people. Total number of releases. I know we have more than [ MUSIC ] I'm doing it because if I wasn't here on the ground, doing my job, I would be in the US reading newspapers and saying someone needs to be doing something. I thought my whole life I had nothing. And here are people who don't have drinking water or a hospital in their villages. And I wanted to help, you know? And regardless of your religion, I think that like, I know for sure like even if I died during Ebola, at least I lived for something I believed in. Can you smile? [ LAUGH ] Somebody has to. To do the job. I'm looking at it like we're fighting a war. And we all have to play our part, and I just feel that it's a duty, that I have to go back. Okay, until we can get rid of it entirely. [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ]. [ FOREIGN ]. [ FOREIGN ]. [ FOREIGN ]. [ FOREIGN ]. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3626156/ebola-screening-airports-cdc/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3626156/ebola-screening-airports-cdc/"},"headline":"How Effective Is Screening for Ebola at Airports?","datePublished":"2014-12-10T14:49:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:14.112Z","description":"Since August, 80,000 passengers have been screened for Ebola at various airports around the world. 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