Close the Border Before Ebola and other Drug Resistant Disease Infect our Country

The fear of Ebola spreading outside Africa continues to monopolize the news over the past week. With different western African countries already admitting they could no longer contain the virus, many European nations, the United States and Australia all brace for a possible pandemic. Some say fears of an outbreak are unfounded and are mere delusions of a paranoid media. However, the truth will even make the largest skeptic nervous.

The fact is that it could take over 2 weeks for the first sign of the Ebola virus to become evident in an infected person. So, a person flying out of Africa may leave the continent apparently healthy and possibly infect all those along the flight and whomever ever he or she comes in contact with before succumbing to the disease.

A recent story broke today of how Mount Sinai in New York has quarantined a person who recently flew out of Africa with early symptoms of what could be the Ebola virus. Will this be the first case of the disease in the country—I mean, the first case that we didn’t intentionally import?

What makes it even scarier is that some illegals crossing the Mexican border originated from a few of the western African nations stricken by the virus. With less than 5 percent of those crossing the border apprehended and tested for infection, who knows what could be coming into our country.

As the United States is being overrun by these illegals, what else may we American citizens potentially come in contact with? We’ve already seen drug resistant TB enter the country. Measles, scabies, lice and different forms of pneumonia have crossed too. Will it only be a matter of time before Ebola sneaks in illegally?

Proper measures must be taken before it’s too late. An open border is like a festering wound, just waiting to sicken the rest of the country.