(CTPost) – Health officials in five states have warned people believed to be infected with measles and planning to travel that federal regulation could prevent them from boarding planes. All eight individuals agreed to cancel their flights after learning the government could place them on the “do not board list” managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Martin Cetron, director of the agency’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, which tracks disease outbreaks.
“The deterrent effect is huge,” even in cases like these where the government’s authority was not invoked, Cetron said. The agency had been contacted about the individuals by health officials from New York, California, Illinois, Texas and Washington state, CDC officials said. Officials are often reluctant to talk about the government’s travel ban authority “because it is a politically charged and politically visible request,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health policy at Georgetown University. READ MORE
