�������ýҕ�l

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expanding its power to prevent individuals from entering the U.S. “in the interest of public health” — including lawful permanent U.S. residents. An interim final rule, released Friday, cites the current Ebola outbreak as the reason for the change. Lawful permanent residents who have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within the last 21 days are now banned from entering the U.S. through mid-June, the agency said. (Gardner, 5/22)

Some public health specialists told ABC News that monitoring travel exposures is an important part of containing and tracing the spread of a disease. However, they warned that broader bans can have unintended consequences that may negatively impact global public health and hinder containment efforts that should be considered when making these decisions. (Cobern, 5/23)

Friday evening, it was announced that two additional U.S. airports will start screening in the next few days—the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. The two airports join Washington Dulles in Virginia. (Huang, 5/23)

A former adviser to President Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic said Sunday that the U.S. is equipped to handle an Ebola outbreak. “The U.S. right now does not have a confirmed head of the CDC, it does not have a confirmed head of the FDA, doesn’t have a confirmed Surgeon General. Is the U.S. prepared to deal with an outbreak of Ebola or any other infectious disease, if it comes to our shores?” CBS News’s Nancy Cordes asked Dr. Deborah Birx on “Face the Nation.” (Suter, 5/24)

The Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo is "spreading rapidly," according to the head of the World Health Organization. WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned during a Friday press briefing that the U.N. health agency has upgraded its risk assessment for spread at the national level from "high" to "very high." At the regional level, the risk remains "high" while the global level is still "low." (Winsor, Kekatos, and Benadjaoud, 5/24)

Three Red Cross volunteers have died, believed to have contracted the Ebola virus during a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in March, the organization said. “At the time of the intervention, the community was not aware of the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak, and the outbreak had not yet been identified. They are among the first known victims of the outbreak,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said Saturday. (Lenthang, 5/23)

Health authorities and aid agencies across east and southern Africa are reinforcing screening at key crossings and scaling up preparedness planning, as officials warn that ongoing cross-border movement continues to present a risk of further cases. (Clayton, 5/25)

Murmurs of a “casket disease” had already begun by mid-May, as patients began to die in waves. Patrick LaRochelle, an American missionary physician, was 20 minutes away from getting on a plane out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, part of his journey with his wife and three kids back home to the United States for a summer visit. Then he got a WhatsApp message: Ebola was here. (Weber, 5/26)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: �������ýҕ�l Health News’ ‘On Air’: Journalists Distill News On Ebola, Licensing Midwives, And California’s Budget

Céline Gounder, �������ýҕ�l Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, discussed the diversion of a Detroit-bound plane to Canada over Ebola concerns on CBS News’ CBS Mornings on May 21. Gounder also discussed how the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak has been declared a global health emergency on Fox’s LiveNOW on May 18. (5/23)