Aviation and the Ebola epidemic in West-Africa

[Passenger]

"Should health care workers who treat Ebola in Africa be quarantined?"

pro's and contra's - CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/24/healt ... index.html

Doctor Erika Vlieghe, Belgium's ebola coordinator, is very clear about this question: "if you are not sick, you cannot contaminate someone. People without fever and without other ebola complaints ae not sick, so they don't have to be hospitalized".

http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/video ... 25_vlieghe

from ITG.be : Dr. Erika Vlieghe is an internal medicine and infectious diseases specialist who studied at and was awarded a PhD by the KU Leuven and the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM). She gained extensive experience in Belgium as well as in the tropics. She currently works as a senior clinical staff member and researcher at ITM. Dr. Vlieghe is head of the Unit of Tropical and Infectious Diseases at the University Hospital in Antwerp (UZA), which works closely with ITM. The unit treats patients with AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other tropical diseases and advises other hospital departments about (hospital) infections. Dr. Vlieghe teaches tropical medicine and infectious diseases at ITM and Antwerp University. The past few years she carried out pioneering research on antibiotic resistance in South East Asia. Since the emergence of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, she was closely involved in the design and implementation of precautionary measures in Belgium, Antwerp University Hospital and at ITM. In October 2014, She took up the position of national Ebola coördinator, assigned by the federal Minister of Health.

[Malaysia]

Why Brussels Airlines is a Central Figure in the Ebola Panic


The answer is surprisingly simple. Brussels Airlines has become the chief commercial airline for both medical staff, volunteers, and regular travelers needing to travel to West Africa. Since both British Airways and Emirates have temporarily suspended their service on routes to the region, Brussels is the only option for those coming from outside the African continent.

You forgot about Royal Air Maroc, they are still maintaining their flights aswell, most of them fully booked.

[Flanker2]

As Ebola flies through the 10.000 known cases, Mali is Ebola-free again, as the 2 year old girl has succombed to Ebola. May her poor soul rest in peace.

[FlightMate]

Ebola-free for 10-21 days. Then the family (poor girl was very symptomatic during her bus ride) will probably be the next patients.

hopefully, Mali will react NOW and isolate the few 10-20 passengers before it spreads too much.

[Flanker2]

State governors of New York, New Jersey and Illinois have imposed mandatory quarantine for returning aid workers, going one step further than the CDC. Thank god some people still have some common sense...

Today a New York nurse who returned from Sierra Leone criticised this approach as she feels she's being treated like a criminal. Unfortunately, while she claims to be this great philantropist, she's forgetting about her family and friends...just like the doctor who was diagnosed, forcing his fiance and friends into quarantine.

While I believe that they should be rewarded for their work and also be compensated during the forced quarantine period, I can't believe how selfishly these people are acting. 21 days of their lives surely can't be worth more than their own families' lives?

Prepared to die for the cause, but not prepared to lose 21 days for the safety of their next of kin?

It's a huge paradox and makes me wonder what their real motive is for their volunteering.
Bragging rights? Promotion/recognition back at home?
Surely people who are doing it out of passion for their job and compassion for the victims, ie genuine heroes, won't mind a 21-day quarantine?

[Passenger]

As Ebola flies through the 10.000 known cases, Mali is Ebola-free again, as the 2 year old girl has succombed to Ebola. May her poor soul rest in peace.

Mali ebola-free? You really have no idea what's going on.

Ebola-free for 10-21 days. Then the family (poor girl was very symptomatic during her bus ride) will probably be the next patients. Hopefully, Mali will react NOW and isolate the few 10-20 passengers before it spreads too much.

The little girl was not "symptomatic" during the bus trip: she was sick (ebola). She was travelling with her grandmother to the funeral of her mother (not the grand-grandmother, but the mother of the two year old child). So the little girl therefore has infected a lot more then your 10-20 passengers. Seems you have no idea what a bus trip of 1.000 kms down there means. It's not like "...the bus from Amsterdam to Warshaw will make a stopover at Antwerpen-Berchem Railway station from 11h30-12h00...". That 1.000 kms was probably a two day bus trip (if not more). Actually, MSF and WHO so far have already contacted 46 people who were in close contact with the little girl, and who probably have spread the virus into Mali.

Luckily for Mali, MSF/AZG was already in the country for weeks, preparing for what was unevitable: this outbreak. Although, preparing... AZG/MSF was advising local people about ebola symptoms and learn them how to react. And luckily for Mali, AZG/MSF had already set up some ebola field hospitals in Mali.

Too many people in the western world think that ebola will stop if we "isolate the ebola countries". Actually, that narrowminded attitude is a guarantuee that ebola will spread worldwide. Overland, not exported through airlines.

[sean1982]

Whats the difference between symptomatic and sick?
If what you say is true then why did it take so long to spread to Mali and is the only reason why it did spread is because the busdriver drive through the bushes instead of the borderpost?
Time for another Google search?

[Passenger]

Whats the difference between symptomatic and sick?
If what you say is true then why did it take so long to spread to Mali and is the only reason why it did spread is because the busdriver drive through the bushes instead of the borderpost?
Time for another Google search?

I'm not a doctor, but I guess they (= the doctors) mean symptomatic = weakened, not feeling good, probability of having fever. Sick = bleeding nose and diarrhea (which she had, but grandmother was unaware of the link with ebola).

If what you say is true then why did it take so long to spread to Mali and is the only reason why it did spread is because the busdriver drive through the bushes instead of the borderpost?

"If what I say it's true": it is true: it's on WHO.int. Just like they say it's the first confirmed case in Mali. Both WHO and AZG/MSF assume that there are already other cases in Mali, not confirmed yet (because no volunteer has reached the community yet where they live). By the way, their busdriver did not "drive through the bushes instead of taking the the borderpost". The routing he took is even described on WHO.int

I understand you regard black Africa as too unsafe now, but you should try to go there at least once. I've worked there for five months, and I can assure you: those "4x4 drives through the bush" are no obstacle for a bus. So many vehicles use those 4x4 bush paths that they became roads.

[sean1982]

Quoting Reuters : Mali, together with cocoa producer Ivory Coast, has put in place border controls to stop Ebola at its frontiers. However, a visit to Mali's border with Guinea by Reuters this month showed vehicles avoiding a health checkpoint set up by Malian authorities by simply driving through the bush.

H.A.

[sn-remember]

The doctor, Craig Spencer, a member of Doctors Without Borders who had been working in Guinea,... returned to Brussels Oct. 16.

According to BBC, Dr Spencer left Guinea on 14 October, and returned to New York City on 17 October via Europe.

Meanwhile, two nurses infected with Ebola while caring for a dying patient in Dallas have been declared free of the virus.

I am so happy for the nurses ... which I kinda got to know ..
..
Considering Dr Spencer, it will be of interest to see wether he transmitted the virus during the asymptomatic phase.
We cross fingers that he didn't.
I think that his wife should have been isolated from him.
Here's the story ..
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ebo ... -1.1986708

[sn26567]

While it has been confirmed that Dr. Craig Spencer flew on SN501 from BRU to JFK on 17 October, nobody mentions with which airline he left Guinea. SN had no flight from CKY on 14 October. Did he fly AF to CDG? Or RAM?

[sean1982]

He flew one day earlier with SN and overnighted in Brussels.

[sn26567]

He flew one day earlier with SN and overnighted in Brussels.

Nope! The U.S. press and BBC report that he left Guinea on 14 October. That week, SN operated flights from CKY (SN1255) on 12 and 15 Oct (OO-SFO both days).

http://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/sn1255/

[Passenger]

He flew one day earlier with SN and overnighted in Brussels.

Nope! The U.S. press and BBC report that he left Guinea on 14 October. That week, SN operated flights from CKY (SN1255) on 12 and 15 Oct (OO-SFO both days).

http://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/sn1255/

And even if he did: so what? He had no ebola symptoms, he had no fever, he was not feeling unwell. Therefore it is impossible that he has put other passengers in danger.

[sn26567]

And even if he did: so what? He had no ebola symptoms, he had no fever, he was not feeling unwell. Therefore it is impossible that he has put other passengers in danger.

I know this. I was just curious: SN is not the only airline flying to CKY.

[Flanker2]

Yep, if Spencer did spread it through NYC, we can't peg it on SN.
As I said earlier on, it's likely it's AF or RAM, as SN didn't have a CKY flight that day.

[tolipanebas]

After completing their duties in Africa, medical staff from MSF will often come back to the MSF training centre in BRU to debrief and share their experiences; from there they continue to their home country.
In this particular case, the doctor did NOT return from CRY on SN indeed and he simply happened to be booked on an SN flight to JFK by chance really; it could just as well have been the DL or the 9W flight.
Do I need to point out (Spanish or Italian) MSF staff may well be on your flights our of BRU too, Sean?
I hope you guys carry protective Ebola kits on board, like we do...

[Lysexpat]

I hope you guys carry protective Ebola kits on board, like we do...

Do you carry a protective body suit? Gloves and a mask alone are pretty useless.
Are you trained to take it off, as incorrect way of taking it off, is probably the main reason why healthworkers get infected?

[tolipanebas]

Ful protective suits are indeed onboard and briefings on how to use them are given, also by staff of MSF.
I am sure Ryanair has the same, given they are just as likely to have a symptomatic passenger on a European flight from BRU as anybody else you know, with MSF having its Ebola expertise centre set up in our capital.

[airazurxtror]

Like they do already in a few states in the US, all people coming from those countries should be quarantined at their arrival here; why wait for the first cases of contagion before taking the obvious measures ?