Anyone returning from an Ebola-stricken country will be monitored by health authorities for three weeks

All travelers who arrive in the U.S. from the Ebola-stricken countries -- Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia -- will be closely monitored for 21 days by public health officials, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced Wednesday, Oct. 22.

These measures took effect immediately in the six states that receive approximately 70 percent of travelers from Est Africa: New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Georgia. All other states that receive travelers from the region, including Kentucky, will implement these policies "over the following days," a CDC release said..

Kit for travelers entering U.S. from West Africa

Travelers who have been in these countries will get a kit at the airport with an explanation of what Ebola symptoms are, a thermometer and instructions on how to use it, and specific contact information to report symptoms. These people will also be required to maintain daily contact with state and local officials for the entire 21 days following the last possible date of exposure to the Ebola virus.

"These new measures I'm announcing today will give additional levels of safety so that people who develop symptoms of Ebola are isolated quickly," Frieden told reporters.

These measures are in place only for travelers without symptoms. Those showing symptoms will be isolated and, if need be, transported by trained medical personnel. If a traveler is considered "high risk," but not yet showing symptoms, Frieden said he or she would be quarantined and not permitted to travel via public transportation.

New York and New Jersey have taken this new policy a step further and now require all medical workers returning from West Africa who had contact with Ebola patients to be quarantined for 21 days. Illinois will require people who have traveled to West Africa and have come into direct contact with someone infected with the Ebola virus to "undergo a mandatory 21-day home quarantine," Ray Sanchez and Elizabeth Cohen report for CNN.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said the policy could backfire. "These individuals who are going there to serve are the people who will end this crisis," de Blasio said. "We can't have the illusion that we can turn away from it and some day it may end. If we took that attitude, this would be a truly devastating global crisis."

Rural Ky. hospitals make sure they are ready for Ebola

Rural hospitals in Kentucky are making sure they are prepared in the event they get a patient with the Ebola virus, Bill Estep reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The risk of Ebola coming to rural Kentucky is low and there have been no cases in the state, according to officials of the state Department of Public Health, but rural hospitals are getting ready just in case, Estep reports.

It's not known where a patient might enter the health care system, so every hospital must be prepared, State Health Commissioner Stephanie Mayfield, told Estep.

Hospital officials all over the state have told Estep that they are making sure they are prepared in case they get an Ebola patient, saying they are reporting up-to-date daily information on dealing with Ebola to their employees; staying apprised of what the state health department and the federal Centers for Disease Control recommend; updating patient-screening processes to help determine the risk of Ebola, reviewing isolation procedures; taking stock of protective gear; and providing staff education.

"The protocol for rural hospitals would be to put an Ebola patient in isolation, then contact the local or state health department for guidance on whether to transfer the patient," Joe Murrell, chief executive officer at the 25-bed Wayne County Hospital in Monticello, told Estep, because "most rural hospitals don't have the resources to treat an Ebola patient for a long period."

But is this level of preparation enough?

Health care workers continue to be concerned because the two nurses in Dallas who were caring for the infected man from Liberia who has since died, and now have Ebola, "reportedly got the virus despite wearing protective gear," Estep writes.

Initially Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said any hospital could safely take care of Ebola, Kimberly Leonard reports for U.S. News & World Report. “You need a private room with a private bathroom, and rigorous, meticulous training and materials to make sure that care is done safely so caregivers aren’t at risk,” he said, Leonard writes.

But Linda Greene, an infection prevention manager at Highland Hospital in Rochester, N.Y., and a member of the Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology Regulatory Review Panel, told Leonard, "Despite the best efforts, we do know in many hospitals that infection-prevention control measures are under-resourced,” and "There may be need for even more specialization than we initially thought."

But Greene goes on to say that despite these challenges,"Every hospital, however, should be able to screen and identify a patient at risk and immediately put them into isolation as necessary and do the initial triage, Leonard reports.

This is what Kentucky hospitals seem to be doing, despite concerns of some that it might not be enough.

Kevin Kavanagh, a Somerset physician and board member of Health Watch USA, told Estep that there are still "unanswered questions" about care for patients with Ebola, citing "his understanding that the CDC still doesn't know how the Dallas nurses got infected despite wearing protective gear" and "what plans hospitals have to dispose of the medical waste" and the "extent of the knowledge about how the disease spreads."

News media blamed for most of Ebola scare; experts continue to say that risk of infection is low

The reaction of many Americas regarding the Ebola virus has gone beyond what is medically necessary, but is a natural reaction to fear, Maggie Fox reports for NBC News.

Medical experts told Fox that while the federal Centers for Disease Control and state health departments are taking appropriate measures to keep an eye on people who were in direct contact with Ebola patients, some actions "may be excessive," such as Cleveland-area schools closing after a middle-school worker "traveled home from Dallas on Frontier Airlines Tuesday on a different flight, but perhaps the same aircraft" as the Ebola-infected nurse, Fox reports.

“They are taking drastic steps for a risk that is rather remote,” said George Kapalka, professor of psychological counseling at Monmouth University in New Jersey.

Blame for this fear is placed on the news media and politicians, Fox reports. Media are “undoubtedly complicit in stoking this fear, not by covering the story — that’s fine,” risk perception expert David Ropeik told Fox. “They are complicit by burying all the qualifiers about how minimal the risk is.”

So how risky is Ebola?

“The only individuals potentially at risk for Ebola in the United States right now are those who have traveled to affected areas of West Africa or who have been directly involved in treating cases of Ebola or close contacts to a symptomatic patient with Ebola," Stephanie Mayfield, Kentucky's public health commissioner, said in a press release.

Mafudia Suaray, a family physician at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, says the risk of getting Ebola in the U.S. is "very low." She explains that "Ebola is a virus that is spread from person to person through contact with bodily fluids, including saliva, tears, sweat, urine, blood, stool and semen. It is not spread through the air. ... The virus cannot be spread through contact with intact skin and a person must have symptoms of the disease to spread it to others."

Adam Cole of NPR created a visual to show how unlikely an Ebola infection is, based on the reproduction number of the virus, which indicates how many people one person might infect. It says that for every person who has Ebola will infect two others, but direct contact with a bodily fluid is required.

And the reason that officials, including the CDC Director Thomas Frieden, think Ebola will be contained in the U.S. is because our public health system is good and Ebola isn't contagious until symptoms are present, allowing time to isolate those who have come in contact with anyone who has been infected, and thus stopping the spread of the disease, Michaeleen Doucleff reports for NPR.

Suaray reminds us in the release that "common sense prevention measures should always be the priority, whether for Ebola or for more common illnesses such as the cold and flu." Wash your hands, stay home if you have fever, see a health care provider if your fever is high, cover your face with your arm or a tissue when you cough or sneeze and talk to your doctor if you plan on traveling to an infected region.

Respiratory virus that is sweeping Midwest has found its way to Kentucky; frequent handwashing remains best defense

The respiratory virus that has been hospitalizing children in the Midwest has come to Kentucky, reports Chris Kenning of The Courier-Journal: "Kraig Humbaugh, deputy commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Public Health, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently confirmed that five of 10 cases it tested from Kentucky were enterovirus D68."

Enteroviruses are common and tend to peak at this time of year, and enterovirus D68, a less common strain of this common virus, causes mostly respiratory illness. The CDC says symptoms for enterovirus D68 can range from mild to severe respiratory illness and that mild symptoms look very much like a cold: fever, runny nose, sneezing, cough, and body and muscle aches.

But it is the severe respiratory symptoms that are causing hospitalizations, particularly among children with asthma or underlying medical conditions, Kenning notes.

"In Kentucky, the spike in respiratory illnesses was first noticed in the central part of the state several weeks ago. But it is now being reported elsewhere, including in Louisville, although D68 has not been confirmed in Louisville," he reports. No deaths have been reported in Kentucky or in other states, officials told him.

"Hospitals in Colorado, Missouri and potentially eight other states are admitting hundreds of children for treatment of an uncommon but severe respiratory virus," probably enterovirus D68, The Washington Post reports.

From mid-August to Sept. 12, 97 people in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky and Missouri were confirmed to have respiratory illness caused by enterovirus D68, according to the CDC.

The virus is spread when the infected person coughs, sneezes or touches a contaminated surface. There is no treatment or vaccine for the virus.

The best ways to reduce your risk are: frequent hand washing; keeping unwashed hands off of your eyes, nose and mouth; avoiding contact with people who are sick; and disinfecting communal surfaces frequently.

Humbaugh told Kenning that he is encouraging families who have children with cold-like symptoms that cause difficulty breathing to consult with their doctor. If you're sick, he said, stay home.