Posted on October 9, 2014

HHS Secretary: There May Be Other Cases of Ebola in the U.S.

Philip Klein, Washington Examiner, October 9, 2014

Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell said that despite the best efforts of health officials, Americans have to prepare for the reality that there may be more cases of Ebola in the United States.

“We had one case and I think there may be other cases, and I think we have to recognize that as a nation,” Burwell said at a media breakfast hosted by the journal Health Affairs and held at the Washington, D.C. offices of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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She expressed confidence in the screening process that has already been in place in travelers’ departure cities, but acknowledged that no such system is 100 percent.

“The most important place with regard to taking care of screening is actually at the point of departure,” she said. “And that’s been in place for many months and as we know, we have a case. That case sadly is deceased. But for many months, we did not have a case that entered the country. And we know that that screening has worked in the sense of 80 people have been pulled from the lines in the screening and stopped in the home country. And that’s the most important place to do that.”

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