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Jon Collins
St. Paul, Minn.

MN leaders press for Ebola screening of W. Africa travelers at MSP

Passengers mingle at JFK
Health screening procedures were put in place at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York this week to check the health of people arriving from Ebola affected countries.
Craig Ruttle / AP

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Gov. Mark Dayton and Minnesota's U.S. senators are asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to start screening for Ebola at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Previous coverage:
 • Hospital labs may balk at testing blood
 • How contagious is Ebola?
 • How prepared is Minnesota for Ebola?
 • Photos: The Ebola response in Liberia, and beyond
 • Liberian Americans warned to stay away from homeland

The three officials wrote Monday to CDC Director Tom Frieden asking that passengers traveling from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea be screened for the virus, though the CDC says 99 percent of those passengers have already been screened twice for Ebola.

"While 99 percent is a comforting statistic, the Ebola experience in Dallas, Texas has taught us that even one case of Ebola in our state or country can have devastating consequences," Dayton and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken said in their letter.

CDC officials announced last week that passengers from West Africa will be screened for Ebola at five airports around the country. Minnesota has one of the largest Liberian populations in the country. But there are no direct flights from West Africa to the Twin Cities.

"We have the largest Liberian population of any state in the nation so we'll follow up with that this afternoon and see what their response is and we'll talk with others at the White House and elsewhere to see what we can get out of that," Dayton said Monday.

Minnesota Health Commissioner Ed Ehlinger said the state is prepared to handle an Ebola outbreak if it does happen. He said this spring that the state successfully contained a case of Lassa fever, which is similar to Ebola.