Brooklyn, N.Y. – Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke released the following statement on President Barack Obama’s announcement of additional screening procedures at several airports in the eastern United States to prevent the transmission of the Ebola virus.

United States Customs and Border Protection agents will ask travelers who have been in regions affected by the Ebola virus a serious of questions about their health and about their contact with individuals who are infected with the virus, and will check their body temperatures.

“I commend President Obama and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson for their attention to this critical matter of public health. We have the ability to prevent an epidemic in the United States,” said Congresswoman Clarke. “As we act to prevent an epidemic here, we have an obligation to assist the nations that have been affected – Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone – by providing medical supplies and expertise, coordinating with health care professionals, non-governmental organizations and hospitals in the region to stop the spread of this epidemic, arrest the Ebola virus by continuing our efforts to develop both a vaccine and a cure for the disease, which kills about half of the people who become infected.”

The airports at which Customs and Border Protection will conduct screenings are John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, Newark Liberty International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke is a member of the House Committee on Small Business, Ethics, and Homeland Security, where she is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. She represents many neighborhoods in central and southern Brooklyn, NY which include Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Gerritsen Beach, Madison, Midwood, parts of Park Slope and Flatlands, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Sheepshead Bay, and Windsor Terrace.