US Plans to Introduce Additional Screening of Airline Passengers For Ebola

President Obama Announced Monday that the U.S. government is planning to introduce additional screening of incoming airline passengers to detect Ebola symptoms.

Speaking after a briefing with U.S. health officials, Obama said that the government was working on protocols to implement additional passenger screening both at the source and in the U.S.

Obama's comments come in the wake of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirming the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. last Tuesday. Thomas Eric Duncan is presently being treated at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas

Obama said that there was little chance of a major outbreak in the US as the additional screening coupled with the existing measures would be sufficient in preventing the spread of the disease.

"All of these things make me confident that here in the United States at least the chances of an outbreak, of an epidemic here are extraordinarily low," Obama said, reports The Guardian.

Elaborating further, Obama said that procedures were in place to quickly examine any person who was showing Ebola symptoms. He said that thousands of people came to America from West Africa in recent months and only one case of Ebola was diagnosed in the U.S.

However, Obama criticized other nations for not taking necessary steps to stop the spread of Ebola in Africa.

"Countries that think that they can sit on the sidelines and just let the United States do it, that will result in a less effective response, a less speedy response, and that means that people die.

"And it also means that the potential spread of the disease beyond these areas in West Africa becomes more imminent," Obama said, reports BBC.

Some U.S. lawmakers had suggested a ban on travel from West African Countries to the U.S. However, White House said that a travel ban would slow down the fight against Ebola. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that the administration does not want to hinder the transport systems used to send supplies and staff to the Ebola hit countries in West Africa, reports Reuters.