Some airline passengers arriving into Chicago from three West African countries will be put under a mandatory home quarantine, Illinois health officials announced Friday.
Passengers who had any contact with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, Liberia or Guinea will be placed in quarantine for 21 days under a mandate from the Illinois Department of Public Health. Illinois follows New York and New Jersey in the rule change.
The order includes any high-risk medical personnel who have performed medical services to individuals infected with the Ebola virus and will be implemented by local health departments across the state. Previously these high-risk individuals were subject to a voluntary quarantine.
While Gov. Pat Quinn called it a "common sense" move, some experts maintain it's risky to rely on the honor system.
"It's too dangerous. I mean, it's too easy to lie. I don't think that's anything we want to rely on," said Aaron Gellman, a professor at the Transportation Center and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. "I don't think it's bad to ask them the question, but you don't necessarily have to believe it."
More than 10,000 people worldwide have contracted ebola, according to the World Health Organization. In the U.S., a health care worker who was in isolation at a New Jersey Hospital tested negative for ebola.
Officials said the woman who treated patients in West Africa would remain under mandatory quarantine.
There have been no confirmed cases of Ebola in Illinois.
