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. 2024 Jul 7;31(5):taae079.
doi: 10.1093/jtm/taae079.

On alert for Ebola: public health risk assessment of travellers from Uganda to the USA during the 2022 outbreak

Jennifer J Fowler  1 , Leigh Ellyn Preston  1   2 , Shannon L Gearhart  1 , Argelia Figueroa  1 , Deborah L Christensen  1   2 , Colby Mitchell  1   3 , Estephania Hernandez  1   4 , Ardath W Grills  1 , Stephanie M Morrison  1 , Melanie Wilkinson  1 , Tahab Talib  1 , Kayla Marie Lavilla  1 , Tureka Watson  1 , Dionne Mitcham  1   3 , Ronnae Nash  1   5 , Maria A Colón Veguilla  1   5 , Sabrina Hansen  1 , Nicole J Cohen  1 , Seseni A Nu Clarke  1 , Ar'reil Smithson  1 , Emma Shearer  1   6 , Danielle Gilliard Pella  1   2 , Joseph D Morris  1   3 , Sarah Meehan  1   2 , Mahmoud Aboukheir  1 , Kara Adams  1 , Zenia Sunavala  1 , Jake Conley  1 , Maeva Abouattier  1 , Matthew Palo  1   2 , Linda Capewell Pimentel  1   2 , Andre Berro  1 , Hugh Mainzer  7 , Ramona Byrkit  7 , Daniel Kim  1   3 , Volha Katebi  1 , Francisco Alvarado-Ramy  1   2 , Shahrokh Roohi  1 , Abbey E Wojno  1 ; Viral Special Pathogens Group; Clive M Brown  1 , Alida M Gertz  1
Affiliations

On alert for Ebola: public health risk assessment of travellers from Uganda to the USA during the 2022 outbreak

Jennifer J Fowler et al. J Travel Med. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: On 20 September 2022, the Ugandan Ministry of Health declared an outbreak of Ebola disease caused by Sudan ebolavirus.

Methods: From 6 October 2022 to 10 January 2023, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff conducted public health assessments at five US ports of entry for travellers identified as having been in Uganda in the past 21 days. CDC also recommended that state, local and territorial health departments ('health departments') conduct post-arrival monitoring of these travellers. CDC provided traveller contact information, daily to 58 health departments, and collected health department data regarding monitoring outcomes.

Results: Among 11 583 travellers screened, 132 (1%) required additional assessment due to potential exposures or symptoms of concern. Fifty-three (91%) health departments reported receiving traveller data from CDC for 10 114 (87%) travellers, of whom 8499 (84%) were contacted for monitoring, 1547 (15%) could not be contacted and 68 (1%) had no reported outcomes. No travellers with high-risk exposures or Ebola disease were identified.

Conclusion: Entry risk assessment and post-arrival monitoring of travellers are resource-intensive activities that had low demonstrated yield during this and previous outbreaks. The efficiency of future responses could be improved by incorporating an assessment of risk of importation of disease, accounting for individual travellers' potential for exposure, and expanded use of methods that reduce burden to federal agencies, health departments, and travellers.

Keywords: Ebola outbreak; Traveller monitoring; entry screening; public health response.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: All authors state they have no conflict of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Final US destinations of travellers from Uganda reported at entry screening during the Sudan ebolavirus outbreak, October 2022–January 2023 (American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam had no travellers) * American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Meriana Islands, and Guam had no travelers
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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