threat of bioterrorism and infectious diseases Quarantine station to open at Logan US acts amid growing threat of bioterrorism and infectious diseases By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff | November 3, 2005 With the threat of bioterrorism and infectious diseases growing, the federal government by the end of this year plans to open a quarantine station at Boston's Logan International Airport where officials can evaluate the health threats posed by incoming travelers. The Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates Logan, is building an office suite and an isolation room where a five-person staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can evaluate travelers and train airport and airline personnel on how to detect symptoms consistent with infectious diseases. The CDC office will be located in the international Terminal E. ''We are most interested in people with fever accompanied by rash, stiff neck, jaundice, cough, or unusual bleeding and severe diarrhea with or without fever," said Maria Pia Sanchez, officer in charge for the CDC at Logan. She is currently working out of her home. Sanchez said she and her staff, including one medical director, will monitor all international arrivals at Logan. ''While avian flu is what is on most people's mind right now, the most common quarantinable disease we pick up through our quarantine stations is tuberculosis," Sanchez said in an e-mail. ''A case of TB can be imported from just about any country." CDC officials say a quarantine station will not have a major impact on most travelers arriving from abroad at Logan, since a tiny percentage are actually pulled aside for evaluation. But if avian flu were to mutate into a fast-spreading deadly human virus or a bioterrorism attack occurred, quarantine stations like the one in Boston would probably play a much more aggressive role, serving as the nation's first line of defense in containing the threat. ... http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2005/11/03/ quarantine_station_to_open_at_logan/ ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as eugen@leitl.org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature which had a name of signature.asc]