PHOTO: Chicago's O'Hare Airport. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Five United States airports have been chosen to implement enhanced screening measures for travelers who might have contracted the Ebola virus, officials said today.
The five airports - JFK International in New York, Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Atlanta Hartsfield - combined represent 94 percent of passengers who travel to the U.S. from the three most heavily stricken areas with Ebola in West Africa, the nations of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
The new procedures will begin Saturday at New York's JFK and launch at the rest of the airports next week.
"We believe these new measures will further protect the health of Americans, understanding that nothing we can do will get us to absolute zero risk until we end the Ebola epidemic in West Africa," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said in a statement.
Passengers will face new screening measures that include having their temperature taken. A fever is one of the first symptoms of Ebola.
Although passengers who currently fly from those countries are subject to screening prior to departure, the U.S. has been under public and political pressure to do more after the first case of Ebola diagnosed on American soil was revealed last week. The man, who traveled from Liberia via Brussels, died this morning.
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