CDC Director Says Authorites Must Stop Ebola in Its Tracks on CBS

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said today that while the EBOLA virus has reach the United States, authorities here are "stopping this in its tracks," during an interview that was broadcast live today, Oct. 1, 2014 on CBS THIS MORNING (7:00-9:00 AM) on the CBS Television Network.

"We have surged to respond to that epidemic, but stopping it at the source is the single most effective way to protect Americans," Frieden told co-hosts CHARLIE ROSE and Norah O'Donnell.

A partial transcript of the interview is below.

ROSE: How will you find out whether this person transferred this to someone else and how will you find out who those people are?

FRIEDEN: The bottom line is we're stopping this in its tracks in the U.S. And I'm confident we can do that because of our strong health care and infection control and our strong public health system. What we do in public health day in and day out to protect Americans is something called contact tracing. We identify everyone who could have been in touch with the person when they were infection and then we monitor each of those people every day for 21 days. If they develop a fever or other symptoms, they get isolated. By doing that, we stop the chain of transmission from continuing. So that's the tried and true public health measure that will contain this case from spreading widely.

ROSE: Does that include people that might have been on the plane?

FRIEDEN: That's a natural question, and one we get more than anything else. But let's just step back a minute and understand what the reality is here. The bottom line is, this man was not infectious when he got on the plane. We've checked 100% of the people leaving Liberia for fever. He didn't have a fever. Anyone with fever is not allowed to board the plane. He didn't develop his first symptom until at least four days after he arrived in this country. The incubation period from exposure to infection can be as much as 21 days, so for those four days and the days he was on the plane, he could not have infected anyone.

Watch the appearance below:

Chris Licht is the Vice President of Programming, CBS News, and Executive Producer of CBS THIS MORNING.

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