CDC director faces tough questioning
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WASHINGTON - Republican lawmakers' call for banning travel between the United States and West Africa ramped up Thursday, a day after a second Texas nurse's Ebola diagnosis was confirmed, but a top federal health official refused to say whether the Obama administration is considering such restrictions.
Rather, during a congressional hearing Thursday, Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, skirted a barrage of pointed questions from Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.
'Have you considered it and have you ruled it out? Have you had conversations with the White House about a travel ban?' the congressman asked rapid-fire. 'That's a yes-or-no question. ... Did they rule it out? Are they still considering it?'
Mr. Scalise appeared frustrated when Dr. Frieden repeatedly gave two rote responses: that he cannot speak for the White House and that the CDC would 'consider anything that would reduce the risk to Americans.'
People deserve to know if the administration has ruled out a travel ban, the congressman said.
'If you don't think that's the right way to go, there's a lot of people that would disagree with you,' Mr. Scalise said.
The exchange took place during a hearing of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was on pace to top a total of 4,500 deaths by week's end. President Barack Obama authorized a call-up of reserve and National Guard troops in case they are needed,and he said he might appoint a single official to lead the nation's efforts against the deadly disease. His executive order would allow more forces than the up-to 4,000 already planned to be sent to West Africa, and for longer periods of time.
Health authorities insisted there is virtually no risk right now to Americans beyond medical workers involved in treating Ebola cases or people who recently traveled to West Africa. Yet people across the country were quick to take precautions.
Individual schools in Akron, Ohio, suburban Cleveland and Belton, Texas, were closed for disinfecting because of fears that students or staff might have had tenuous exposure to a Texas nurse who flew across the Midwest the day before she was diagnosed with Ebola. Akron's school superintendent, David James, said the move would calm fears in the community.
Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, who chaired Thursday's hearing, is among many Republicans pressing for travel restrictions.
'Why are we still allowing folks to come here [from countries with Ebola outbreaks]? And why - if they're still coming over here - is there no quarantine?' Mr. Murphy asked during the hearing. 'You're not stopping them from being around other people.'
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said travel restrictions won't help.
'Sealing people off in Africa is not going to keep them from traveling. They'll travel to Brussels ... and then enter the United States,' he said.
Dr. Frieden said that's a concern.
Calls for a travel ban were emboldened by reports Wednesday that the CDC advised Texas nurse Amber Vinson that it was safe to fly to Cleveland even though she had recently treated an Ebola patient and had a fever of 99.5 degrees. Ms. Vinson was later diagnosed with Ebola and was transferred to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta from the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where some 50 co-workers also may have been exposed to the virus.
Dr. Frieden, during Thursday's hearing, said he had not seen a transcript of the phone call and could not confirm whether Ms. Vinson was told it was safe to fly.
Earlier in the hearing, Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer of Texas Health Resources, apologized for 'mistakes' made by his company's Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Thomas Eric Duncan was first misdiagnosed and where Ms. Vinson and her colleague Nina Pham contracted the disease. Ms. Pham was being transferred Thursday night to a National Institutes of Health facility in Maryland that has one of only four bio-containment units in the U.S.
Nations and global bodies continued to grapple with the crisis:
* In Sierre Leone, the government said that two cases had turned up in what was the country's last untouched district. The mountainous Koinadugu district had been the only place in Sierra Leone 'where you can go and breathe a sigh of relief, said John Caulker, the executive director of the nonprofit Fambul Tok. 'To know that now in the whole country no district is safe is heartrending.'
* In Spain, the condition of a nursing assistant infected with Ebola at a Madrid hospital appeared to be improving, but a person who came in contact with her before she was hospitalized developed a fever and was being tested. That second person is not a health care worker, a Spanish Health Ministry spokesman said.
* In Geneva, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, paired the Ebola outbreak and the Islamic State group as 'twin plagues' that will cost the world many billions of dollars to overcome.
* The United Nations made an urgent appeal for more money to fight the disease. A U.N. trust fund launched to raise $1 billion has taken in only $20 million, and most has been spent. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, 'Ebola is a huge and urgent global problem that demands a huge and urgent global response.'
* France said it will begin screening passengers who arrive at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport on the once-daily flight from Guinea's capital.
* In the U.S. on Thursday, Customs and health officials at airports in Chicago, Atlanta, suburban Washington and Newark, N.J., were beginning to take the temperatures of passengers from the three West African countries. The screenings, using no-touch thermometers, started Saturday at New York City's Kennedy International Airport.
Meanwhile, Luciana Borio, assistant commissioner of counterterrorism policy for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, testified that her agency is working to expedite clinical trials for Ebola treatments and diagnostic tests.
There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments, although the experimental drug Zmapp has helped at least two Americans recover after they contracted the disease while serving as missionaries in Liberia.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said his agency is working to fund research into Ebola vaccines and treatments that pharmaceutical companies are not investing in because the market for them is so small.
Mr. Murphy called for a quick and comprehensive federal response to the burgeoning problem, saying the current protocols for disease surveillance, containment and response are insufficient.
Mr. Murphy plans to hold a second subcommittee hearing on Ebola next month. Meanwhile, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., is headed to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital today to meet with doctors and specialists about local capacity to treat Ebola and to stump for legislation reauthorizing funding for pandemic preparedness.
Associated Press contributed. Washington bureau chief Tracie Mauriello: tmauriello@post-gazette.com, 1-703-996-9292 or on Twitter @pgPoliTweets.
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