Bucks Lawmaker Calls for Travel Ban to Stop Spread of Ebola

Bucks County’s Congressman is urging the Obama Administration to enact travel restrictions from West African countries as that region deals with an Ebola outbreak.

Republican Mike Fitzpatrick said such a measure would combat the spread of the virus throughout the United States.

“I ask the Department of State to terminate issuance of travel visas for nationals of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, or any additional country where an Ebola outbreak may occur,” Fitzpatrick said in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson.

The letter goes on to urge the administration to “take all necessary measures” that would enable aid workers to continue their mission in West Africa, including chartered flights or military transport.

On Oct. 8, Thomas Eric Duncan died after being diagnosed with the first Ebola case in America. Since his illness, two of his nurses have contracted the disease.

Duncan, a Liberian, was in Texas visiting family at the time of his illness.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued stricter guidelines to American hospitals with Ebola patients since the hospital workers were exposed to the deadly disease, according to the New York Times.