Bucks County Health Officials Monitoring 3 For Ebola

Officials from the Bucks County Department of Health are monitoring three people who recently traveled from Africa for signs and symptoms of Ebola.

The three people are not showing any signs of Ebola, but health department officials are being vigilant, officials said.

Symptoms of Ebola can appear anywhere between two to 21 days after being exposed to the Ebola virus. Health officials have said that they most often begin within eight to 10 days after exposure.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week announced that public health authorities have started post-arrival monitoring of people whose travel originates in Liberia, Sierra Leone, or Guinea. “These travelers are now arriving to the United States at one of five airports where entry screening is being conducted by Customs and Border Protection and CDC,” according to a press release.

“Our HD (Health Department) folks are working on how to handle it but there are a lot of concerns about travelers who become unavailable to monitor, leave the area, etc.,” county spokesman Chris Edwards said.

Edwards said he was not able to release more information on the three people being monitored by county officials.

“We have provided important information and guidance to both government partners and external public health partners, including hospitals, physicians, schools, emergency medical services, 911 operators, West African community leaders and others,” Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Michael Wolf told reporters last week.

“Ebola is a rare and often deadly disease that affects humans and primates. There is currently no vaccine or medicine that has been proven to cure Ebola. People who have the disease are treated for their symptoms as they develop,” according to a press release from Gov. Tom Corbett’s office.

So far, there have been only three cases of Ebola in the United States, one of which has turned fatal. Liberian resident Thomas Duncan died after started showing Ebola symptoms while visiting his girlfriend Dallas, Texas. The other two cases were nurses who treated Duncan.

Recently, there was controversy when NBC News medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman violated her quarantine and left her house to order soup from a New Jersey eatery.

Worldwide Ebola has claimed over 4,500 lives in 2014.