旧金山,洛杉矶和纽约JFK,局势有可能失控了!
目前武汉新型肺炎已死亡两人,海外45人生病。100名CDC专家入驻机场。
Three U.S. Airports to Screen Passengers for ChineseCoronavirus
ByJan. 17, 2020
Airports in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles will beginscreening passengers arriving from Wuhan, China, for infection witha mysterious respiratory virus that has killed two people andsickened at least 45 overseas, the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention announced on Friday.
Most people with the disease are believed to have contracted itfrom exposure to animals at a market that sells seafood and meat inWuhan, and it is not certain that the virus spreads from person toperson. But a few cases have not been linked to animals, andresearchers say some human-to-human transmission may be possible,so precautions are necessary.
About 100 experts from the C.D.C. are being deployed to thethree airports. The first flight to be screened will arrive at NewYork’s John F. Kennedy Airport on Friday night, Dr. Martin Cetron,director of the C.D.C.’s division of global migration andquarantine, said at a news briefing.
J.F.K. is the only airport in New York where the screening willtake place. Screening at San Francisco International and LosAngeles International will begin on Saturday.
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Over the next few weeks, some 5,000 passengers are likely to bescreened, Dr. Cetron said.
From 60,000 to 65,000 people a year travel from Wuhan to theUnited States. Only New York and San Francisco receive directflights from Wuhan; those passengers arriving in Los Angeles are onconnecting flights.
“I think it’s highly plausible there will be a case in theUnited States,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the NationalCenter for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases in Atlanta.
Travelers will be asked to fill out questionnaires asking ifthey have symptoms like cough or fever, and whether they havevisited meat or seafood markets in Wuhan, the epicenter of theoutbreak.
Screeners will also use thermal scanners that can be pointed atthe forehead or temple to look for fever. People with signs of theillness will be examined further, and those who seem likely to beinfected will be sent on to area hospitals for further testing. Dr.Cetron declined to say which hospitals they would be sent to.
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The illness was first reported in late December in Wuhan, incentral China. Fears of a more widespread outbreak arose this weekwhen two cases were found in Thailand and one in Japan, apparentlycarried to those countries by air travelers from Wuhan.
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The disease is caused by a coronavirus, a member of a family ofviruses that can cause respiratory ailments ranging from colds topneumonia.
A different coronavirus caused the SARS outbreak in 2003, whichoriginated in China and was spread to other countries by travelers,infecting more than 8,000 people and killing nearly 800.
A coronavirus is also the cause of MERS, another severerespiratory ailment that has been present in Saudi Arabia and otherMiddle Eastern countries since 2012.
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