The convener of first US-Africa Summit, President Barack Obama, has said African leaders from Ebola affected countries attending the summit would be screened for the virus.
President Obama announced this on Friday as part of preparation towards the epoch-making event.
"We're making sure we're doing screening as [they leave from their home airports] and some additional screening here," Obama said.
Attendees who had "even a marginal risk ... of having been exposed" to Ebola could be screened after arriving in the U.S, he added.
Information revealed that the attendees are expected to visit the White House, the State Department, the World Bank and Capitol Hill.
An expert in containing of disease propagation through airport says "If all of the infectious individuals come from the same geographic region, passenger screening and quarantine procedures are usually the first measures implemented to prevent against the spread of infectious diseases,"
“The risk of spreading the pathogen at airports is low, and with proper precautions, health officials are not concerned about the disease spreading in the US,” the expert added.
It would be recalled the virus outbreak is keeping leaders from Liberia and Sierra Leone from attending the summit. The leaders of the two countries have decided to stay behind and provide needed support to the stakeholders working towards the containment of the disease.
At least 729 people have died and more than 1,300 people have fallen ill from the viral disease in the worst outbreak ever, primarily affecting Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
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