Raw bushmeat at Chicago airport triggers CDC
Key Takeaways
The CDC seized bushmeat at a US airport, citing concern over the potential spread of Ebola disease.
Numerous outbreaks of the deadly disease have occurred in Africa, with a few cases spreading to the US.
Supporting preventive measures, the FDA-approved Ebola vaccine showed substantial effectiveness during a prior outbreak.
The CDC recently assisted in seizing raw bushmeat from a traveler’s luggage at Chicago’s O'Hare International Airport, citing concern over the potential spread of Ebola.
The luggage, which reportedly came from Africa, contained maggot-covered bushmeat. Bushmeat, according to the CDC, comes from several wild animals—bats, monkeys, apes, cane rats, and duiker antelopes—in certain regions of the world.[]
Due to this health hazard, it is illegal to bring bushmeat into the US. If found at ports of entry, the traveler will be fined $250,000 and the bushmeat will be destroyed together with any items that may have been in contact with it.[]
Ebola outbreak status
Ebola spreads via direct contact with the blood or body fluids of a person or animal who is infected with or died from the disease. The disease was first identified during an outbreak in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.[]
Since then, several outbreaks have arisen in Africa, where, along with human-to-human spread, infections allied with hunting, butchering, and processing infected animals.[] The largest Ebola disease outbreak occurred in 2014–2016 in West Africa, with nearly 29,000 cases reported. The most recent Ebola outbreak occurred in 2022 in Uganda, in which 164 cases with 77 deaths were reported. On January 11, 2023, the Ministry of Health of Uganda declared the outbreak over.[]
Nine of the patients became infected outside of the US and were either sent to the US for treatment or entered the country as an airline passenger. Two nurses who cared for a patient with Ebola contracted the disease, marking its first known spread in the US.
Vaccine offers substantial prevention
In August 2023, the FDA approved an expanded indication for ERVEBO, a vaccine for the prevention of Ebola virus (species Zaire ebolavirus/orthoebolavirus), in individuals 12 months and older.[] The vaccine was approved in 2019 for use in individuals 18 years and older.
According to a retrospective study published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, the vaccine against Ebola showed an estimated effectiveness of 84% in individuals vaccinated at least 10 days before virus exposure.[]
Researchers looked at the vaccine’s effectiveness during a 2018–2020 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The researchers selected individuals from 26,438 cases with suspected Ebola who reported exposure to a person with the disease within the 21 days before symptom onset. The primary analysis included 309 Ebola positive cases and 309 negative cases.
“This is the first published study to assess the effectiveness of [the vaccine] outside a clinical trial and amid the most widespread use of the vaccine to date, during the second-largest Ebola virus disease outbreak ever recorded, addressing uncertainties in the real-world effectiveness of the vaccine left open by previous studies,” the authors wrote.[] “Even in challenging settings, such as the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo […] vaccination is a highly effective tool to control Ebola virus disease outbreaks, in combination with other interventions.”
Such interventions include those carried out by the CDC and officials at O'Hare International Airport, who identified the owner of the luggage containing the bushmeat and informed them of its dangers.
What this means for you
While cases in the US are rare, the CDC continues to take steps to prevent the spread of Ebola. The agency recently seized bushmeat at a US airport, citing concern over the potential spread of disease. Supporting such preventive measures, the FDA-approved Ebola vaccine showed substantial effectiveness in a recent study.