On Oct. 16, U.S. Coast Guard Health Technician Nathan Wallenmeyer, left, and Customs and Border Protection Supervisor Sam Ko, right, conduct pre-screening measures on a passenger from Sierra Leone at O'Hare International Airport's Terminal 5 in Chicago. (Photo: Melissa Maraj, AP) 
 
 WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that all travelers from Ebola outbreak countries in West Africa will be funneled through one of five U.S. airports with enhanced screening starting Wednesday. 
 
 Customs and Border Protection within the department began enhanced screening — checking the traveler's temperature and asking about possible exposure to Ebola — at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 11. 
 
 Enhanced screening for travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea was expanded Oct. 16 to Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare, New Jersey's Newark and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta international airports. 
 
 All travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in West Africa will be funneled through one of five U.S. airports with enhanced screening. (Photo: Janet Loehrke, USA TODAY) 
 
 Those airports were supposed to screen 94% of the average 150 people per day arriving from the three countries. Lawmakers from other states asked for enhanced screening at their airports, too. 
 
 Some lawmakers have called for more restrictions, such as suspending visas or denying entry at ports for citizens from the three countries. 
 
 Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security, announced that travelers from West Africa must arrive at one of the five airports starting Wednesday. 
 
 
 
 "We are working closely with the airlines to implement these restrictions with minimal travel disruption," Johnson said. "If not already handled by the airlines, the few impacted travelers should contact the airlines for rebooking as needed." 
 
 The enhanced screening will apply to anyone who traveled recently to, from or through the three outbreak countries, according to the department's announcement to be published Thursday in the Federal Register. Customs and Border Protection will work with airlines to identify potential travelers before they board, but airlines will be obligated to comply with the rule for carrying to the USA any passengers who recently traveled through the region, according to the filing. 
 
 
 
 The restrictions should affect only about nine travelers per day who would have arrived at other airports. Katie Cody, a spokeswoman for American Airlines, which serves Europe from hubs such as Philadelphia and Charlotte, said the airline has no concerns about the change. 
 
 "We have been tracking that, and we don't have any concerns because the numbers are so small," Cody said. 
 
 British Airways, which serves a variety of U.S. destinations other than the five targeted airports, said it would comply with the measures. 
 
 "Customers affected will be offered a refund or will be rerouted if there is availability," spokeswoman Michele Kropf said. 
 
 Republican lawmakers offered muted praise but pressed for stricter travel restrictions. 
 
 
 
 "In addition to requiring all travelers from at-risk countries to fly through airports with enhanced screening measures in place, I continue to call on the administration to suspend all visas from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the head of the House Homeland Security Committee. 
 
 The head of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said a "real solution" is to deny entry to anyone from the three countries under a provision of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act. 
 
 "President Obama has a real solution at his disposal under current law and can use it at any time to temporarily ban foreign nationals from entering the United States from Ebola-ravaged countries," Goodlatte said. "The vast majority of Americans strongly support such a travel moratorium, and I urge the president to take every step possible to protect the American people from danger." 
 
 Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said steering travelers through the five airports is a sensible precaution. 
 
 "As agreed upon by experts in both the public health and transportation communities, issuing a blanket travel ban would not only be counterproductive, but it would also irresponsibly impede getting much-needed supplies and relief to the countries that need it most," Conyers said. 
 
 Roger Dow, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group for all aspects of travel, praised the move to calm travel concerns while avoiding a travel ban. 
 
 
 
 "The Obama administration continues to heed the counsel of an overwhelming consensus of health and security experts and resist calls for any sort of travel ban on the grounds that it will be counterproductive to efforts to contain Ebola," Dow said. 
 
 A Liberian national, Thomas Eric Duncan, who became the first person diagnosed with the disease in the USA after arriving in Dallas on Sept. 20, had a temperature of 97.3 degrees but didn't tell airport officials in Monrovia, Liberia, that he had cared for a pregnant woman suffering from Ebola. He died Oct. 8, and two nurses who treated him have become infected. 
 
 Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the enhanced screening adds a layer of protection against Ebola entering the country. 
 
 "The Department of Homeland Security's policy to funnel all passengers arriving from Ebola hot spots to one of these five equipped airports is a good and effective step towards tightening the net and further protecting our citizens," Schumer said. 
 
 Obama and Johnson have said they will continue to monitor travel restrictions for possible changes. 
 
 "We are continually evaluating whether additional restrictions or added screening and precautionary measures are necessary to protect the American people and will act accordingly," Johnson said. 
 
 
 
 CLOSE Enhanced screening for Ebola expanded to four more airports Thursday.The latest are Washington's Dulles, Chicago's O'Hare, New Jersey's Newark and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airports. (Oct. 15) Jani Actman and Abby Sun, Medill News Service for USA TODAY 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1tIvtIy ||||| President Obama said Monday the U.S. government would increase passenger screenings in the United States and Africa to detect the Ebola virus, even as he resisted calls to impose a ban on those traveling from the three countries most affected by the outbreak. 
 
 Neither the president nor White House officials elaborated on exactly what those new screenings would entail. At the moment, passengers leaving the three nations most affected by the virus — Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone — are screened for symptoms at the airport before departing. 
 
 “The ability of people who are infected who could carry that across borders is something that we have to take extremely seriously,” Obama said Monday afternoon after a meeting with top advisers to discuss Ebola. 
 
 Obama spoke as Thomas Eric Duncan, as a Liberian man stricken with Ebola, remained in critical condition in a Texas hospital. And his remarks came shortly after a nurse in Madrid became the first person known to have contracted the virus outside of Africa. The nurse was caring for an Ebola-infected priest who had flown from Sierra Leone to Spain last month and subsequently died, according to Ana Mato, the Spanish health minister. 
 
 In his remarks Monday, Obama was sharply critical of countries that he said have not responded aggressively enough to the epidemic, which has killed more than 3,400 people and infected double that number. “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,” he said. 
 
 Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency is trying to contain the spread of Ebola in West Africa, stressing that "an outbreak anywhere is potentially a threat everywhere." He added that the CDC is now looking into the issue of entry screening at the airports. (Centers for Disease Control) 
 
 The new screening possibilities being considered by the administration include taking the temperature of travelers from affected countries upon their arrival at major U.S. airports and more-closely tracking travel histories for international travelers arriving in the United States, said a federal official familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity because plans have not been finalized. 
 
 Obama emphasized that the country was prepared to contain Ebola, saying that he felt the odds of an epidemic in the United States “are extraordinarily low.” 
 
 “In recent months we’ve had thousands of travelers arriving here from West Africa,” he said, “and so far only one case of Ebola has been diagnosed in the United States, and that’s the patient in Dallas.” 
 
 Several Republicans on Monday called for heightened screenings or complete travel bans. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) wrote a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration pointing out that the holiday season is nearing and asked whether the agency is planning to limit or suspend air travel to the Ebola-stricken countries. Gov. Rick Perry (R) of Texas was among those advocating “enhanced screening procedures” for people arriving in the country. 
 
 U.S. airlines said Monday they would meet with federal authorities to discuss ways to provide another layer of protection for their passengers. 
 
 Despite the measures under consideration, there does not appear to be a foolproof way to prevent people infected with Ebola from flying into the country. During two previous public-health panics — the swine-flu pandemic in 2009 and the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2002 and 2003 — flight crews were required to radio ahead whenever a passenger fell ill. 
 
 There are no direct flights by U.S. carriers from Sierra Leone, Guinea or Liberia. The vast majority of travelers from Africa to the United States fly through hub cities in Europe. Duncan flew from his native country to Brussels, where he boarded a flight to Washington Dulles International Airport, changed planes and continued on to Dallas. 
 
 The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has reached the United States, as officials confirmed one case in Dallas. Here's how U.S. health officials plan to stop the virus. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post) 
 
 If a passenger books travel on a single ticket — such as from Liberia to Brussels to the United States — tracking by U.S. Customs and Boarder Protection will reveal that the travel originated in Liberia. But information about a passenger who buys two tickets — Liberia to Brussels, and then Brussels to the United States — will not show up the same way in the agency’s data scan. 
 
 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains full-time offices at Dulles and other major U.S. destinations for international flights, and there are quarantine stations at major airports across the country. 
 
 A spokesman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which manages Reagan National Airport and Dulles, said there have been only informal conversations regarding procedures in the event of a passenger suspected of having Ebola. 
 
 “As this has developed, it’s on the forefront of people’s minds,” said Christopher Paolino, a spokesman for the authority. “Everyone wants to make sure we are prepared.” 
 
 The FAA has the power to restrict flights by U.S. carriers and, working with the CDC and the White House, could revoke the right of specified foreign carriers to land in the United States. In a statement Monday, the agency noted that the World Health Organization and the CDC have not recommended tighter travel restrictions to or from the afflicted countries. 
 
 The White House was clear Monday that it has no plans to ban travelers from West Africa. “A travel ban is something that we’re not currently considering,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. 
 
 Public health officials have warned that a complete travel ban would cause economic harm, hinder the delivery of food and supplies and even limit the ability of doctors, nurses and humanitarian workers to travel into those areas. 
 
 Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, said Sunday that the agency has increased exit screenings at airports in the Ebola-riddled countries, using a combination of thermometers, questionnaires and “visual inspection” of travelers. 
 
 This screening has stopped 77 people from boarding planes, including 17 last month, he said. However, Duncan was able to make his way into the United States simply by filling out a questionnaire saying he had not had contact with anyone infected with Ebola. When Duncan left Liberia, he had no fever and had no symptoms associated with the virus. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Dallas hospital treating Duncan said Monday that over the weekend he began receiving an experimental treatment for the deadly disease. Known as brincidofovir, the antiviral drug is produced by Chimerix, a North Carolina-based biotechnology firm. 
 
 The company said it has received permission to offer the drug to Ebola patients from the Food and Drug Administration, which must sign off on the experimental use of unapproved drugs. There currently are no approved treatments or vaccines for Ebola. 
 
 Duncan, who was diagnosed last week, joins a handful of other Ebola patients who have received experimental drugs during the course of the outbreak. Two U.S. missionaries infected this summer while working in West Africa were given doses of another unapproved drug, known as ZMapp, but the limited supplies of that drug were soon exhausted. An experimental medicine from a Canadian company, Tekmira, was given to another American doctor who was flown to Nebraska from West Africa for treatment. 
 
 Thomas Geisbert, a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston who has researched the Ebola virus for decades, said that no matter what happens with Duncan, it will be difficult to know what role the experimental drug played, because it was given so long after Duncan became ill. 
 
 “It may have been given so late that it doesn’t make a difference either way,” he said. 
 
 No one else who had contact with Duncan has shown any symptoms of Ebola, authorities said Monday. 
 
 The Dallas County prosecutor is considering whether to file criminal charges against Duncan. 
 
 “We are looking at whether he intentionally and knowingly exposed the public to the virus,” Debbie Denmon, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, said Monday. “It’s the issue of holding someone accountable, that you can’t just get on an airplane and lie on a travel document and get to the United States.” 
 
 Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and county officials said Monday they met with Louise Troh, the girlfriend of Duncan, who is in isolation at an undisclosed location with her 13-year-old son, as well as Duncan’s cousin and a 20-year-old man. 
 
 “We take temperatures twice a day. So far we have zero symptoms,” Rawlings said. “We will have fingers crossed and hands folded in prayer because this is an important week.” 
 
 Ashley Halsey III, Lori Aratani, Elahe Izadi, Juliet Eilperin and Sean Sullivan in Washington and DeNeen Brown in Dallas contributed to this report.
– Some 77 travelers destined for America have been prevented from boarding their flights after they were flagged during Ebola screening overseas. Now, it looks like screening is coming to US shores. President Obama yesterday announced "we're going to be working on protocols to do additional, faster screening both at the source and here in the United States." What we know, what it means, and what it doesn't: Currently passengers leaving Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone undergo airport screenings. They can't board any major airline from those locations and reach the US: Most have to transfer in Europe. Dallas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan flew from Liberia to Brussels to Dulles to Dallas. The Washington Post notes that there was no elaboration on the details of any new screening, but it runs down the possibilities: more temperature taking, and careful reviews of the past itineraries of foreigners coming to the US in hopes of revealing, for example, someone who bought two tickets: Africa to Europe and Europe to US. The Post notes there are already quarantine areas in existence at most major US airports. NBC News reports CDC staffers will likely be installed at JFK, Newark, O'Hare, and Dulles. Though some Republicans yesterday clamored for heightened screening (Gov. Rick Perry) or even a potential travel ban (Sen. Ted Cruz), Obama remains in opposition to the latter. Per White House press secretary Josh Earnest: "A travel ban is something that we’re not currently considering." The World Health Organization is against the idea, too, per NBC News. It says blocking flights would exacerbate issues by dealing a blow to those nations' economies and complicating efforts to get food, medicine, and aid workers to affected locations.