Amid fears of a global Ebola epidemic, the feds are keeping a close eye on passengers arriving at JFK and other international airports in the United States to quarantine anyone showing signs of the deadly virus.
And the city’s Health Department alerted doctors and other health providers to immediately report anyone they suspect might have the disease.
“Quarantine officers” at JFK and 19 other US airports are on alert, and airline personnel are trained to spot the symptoms, which include fever, red eyes, severe vomiting, diarrhea and internal bleeding, said a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“If you’re a passenger on a plane and you say you’re sick, you will be met when you land by the CDC,” spokesman David Daigle told The Post.
He added that if Ebola is suspected, the patient will be quarantined and rushed to a hospital.
The city Health Department, meanwhile, urged doctors and other health care providers to be on the lookout for signs of the disease.
“The Health Department issued a health alert to providers to remind them to immediately report suspected Ebola cases,” the department said in a statement.
“We are monitoring the situation and are prepared to protect the health of New Yorkers against any infectious diseases imported into the city.”
A CDC official said during a briefing that a US outbreak is highly unlikely because the disease is difficult to contract.
“While it’s possible that someone could become infected with the Ebola virus in Africa and then get on a plane to the United States, it’s very unlikely that they would be able to spread the disease to fellow passengers,” said Stephan Monroe, deputy director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the CDC.
“The Ebola virus [only] spreads through direct contact with the blood, secretions or other body fluids of ill people,” he said.
There is no vaccine or treatment for the virus, and few labs are capable of testing for it.
“There are no commercial labs I’m aware of that provide testing for Ebola virus. We have testing capability here at CDC and through the Department of Defense Laboratory at Fort Dietrich in Maryland,” Monroe said.
The CDC has issued a “Level 2” alert for travelers, which means those in the African countries where the outbreak has occurred are urged to take extra precautions to avoid coming into contact with infected people.
Daigle said the CDC could raise the alert to a Level 3, which would discourage Americans from any non-essential travel to the countries in West Africa where the virus has struck hardest.
Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, an expert in viral diseases and professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, said there is no reason for New Yorkers to panic.
“The risk of an outbreak is remote, very, very unlikely. Is it possible that someone could return to the US and that individual could infect one or two persons, but it’s not possible for there to be a widespread outbreak,” Lipkin said.
The Ebola outbreak has sickened more than 1,200 and killed at least 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and Lipkin said the outbreak in Africa could grow far more deadly as the disease is spread.
“I’m not worried about the US. I’m worried for the people in Africa. This is indeed the worst outbreak that we’ve seen. It’s a humanitarian nightmare, but the risk is there, not here,” he said.