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Maryland Monitors Travelers from West African for Ebola Symptoms

Ebola
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Ebola

WASHINGTON (AP) - Maryland's health secretary says it will depend on individual circumstances how closely the state monitors people who've been to West Africa for possible Ebola symptoms.

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein said Wednesday that the state hasn't yet worked out the specifics of how it will monitor everyone who returns from the countries stricken by Ebola. The Centers for Disease Control has directed Maryland and five other states to keep tabs on all such travelers for 21 days. Those states represent 70 percent of people arriving from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Sharfstein says Maryland's approach will recognize "that some people who come from West Africa are at a higher risk than others." He says the CDC isn't mandating that everyone be monitored in exactly the same way.

Don Rush is the News Director and Senior Producer of News and Public Affairs at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.