Sanomedics International Holdings Inc. (fka SIMH)

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Possibly hitting New Jersey now NEWARK, NJ (WNBC)

-- Medical workers at University Hospital in Newark have isolated a sick passenger who landed at Newark Liberty Airport from Brussels and are evaluating him "as if he has Ebola" out of extreme caution, sources tell New York station WNBC.

The man, a Liberian national, was singled out for screening by agents at Newark Tuesday afternoon because of his recent travel history: he had traveled from Liberia to Brussels before flying into Newark, the sources said.
That's when officers discovered he had a fever, according to the sources. He was transported to University Hospital, which has a contract with the Port Authority to take all of Newark Airport's medical cases.
Sources briefed on the treatment of the patient said he was being evaluated "as if he has Ebola" out of an abundance of caution and until proven otherwise.
The patient remains in isolation, and poses no risk to anyone, the sources said.
CDC spokeswoman Carol Crawford said in a statement: "During the enhanced screening process for individuals arriving to the United States from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, an individual was identified as reporting symptoms or having a potential exposure to Ebola.
"The passenger is being transported to a local hospital for further evaluation. CDC or state/local public health officials will contact other passengers on the aircraft should it be determined that there was any risk to the other passengers of exposure to communicable disease," Crawford said.
It's not clear how long it will take for test results to return, although past cases have taken up to a day.
Newark is one of five airports nationwide that have been conducting health checks on passengers whose trips began in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, where Ebola has been spreading quickly, killing over 4,500 people over the past 10 months.
Homeland Security officials at the airports -- which also include New York's Kennedy, Washington's Dulles, Chicago's O'Hare and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson -- use no-touch thermometers to check for fever, which can be a symptom of Ebola infection.
The Obama administration announced Tuesday that all arrivals from the Ebola-ravaged zone in West Africa must now fly into those five airports performing fever checks. Previously, the administration said screenings at those airports covered about 94 percent of fliers from the three countries but missed a few who landed elsewhere.
There are no direct flights from those nations into the U.S; about 150 fliers per day arrive by various multi-leg routes.
Since screening started Oct. 11, 562 people have been checked at the five airports, according to Homeland Security. Of those, four who arrived at Dulles airport were taken to a local hospital. No cases of Ebola have been discovered through the airport screenings.
Earlier this month, before the screenings began, a sick passenger was pulled off a flight at Newark and taken to University Hospital, where he was determined to have a minor medical condition. The passenger, who was also on a flight coming from Brussels, left the emergency department feeling well and was not tested for Ebola because he did not meet the criteria.
Three cases of Ebola have been diagnosed in the United States so far, two of them health care workers who actually contracted it here. The nurses in Dallas were treating Thomas Duncan, who died.
Nina Pham's condition was upgraded from fair to good Tuesday, and Amber Vinson is "doing OK, just trying to get stronger" at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, according to her mother.
Also Tuesday, the NBC News freelancer diagnosed with Ebola while working in Liberia was declared free of the virus.
"I'm so lucky," Ashoka Mukpo tweeted. "Wish everyone who got sick could feel this."

http://www.11alive.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/10/21/newark-passenger-evaluated-ebola/17694251/