Posted on 08/03/2014 9:40:54 AM PDT by null and void
Namibias Ministry of Health and Social Services has dispatched a team of health experts to the Hosea Kutako International Airport in the capital Windhoek after one of the passengers on a plane reportedly fell sick with the suspected Ebola virus, APA learnt Friday.An Air Namibia plane that landed at the airport 40km east of Windhoek on Friday morning from Johannesburg, South Africa, had to be quarantined after the passenger showed symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus.
Health ministry of officials could not be reached for comment over the incident but sources at the airport confirmed that passengers from the plane were stopped from disembarking.
The incidence came as the National Health Emergency Management Committee and other stakeholders met in the capital on Friday to discuss the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa and to work out modalities how to deal with the outbreak in the country.
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the Bring Out Your Dead ping list (formerly the Ebola ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the Bring Out Your Dead threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
"We moved our base camp last night and were now positioned literally
within feet of the river. Have been sitting here watching the border
patrol patrolling in their riverboats all night and all morning..."~Jim Robinson
A 30 day world wide ground stop.
Cone of silence...
I found an update though.
http://www.namibian.com.na/indexx.php?id=16114&page_type=story_detail
At least the Africans are taking it seriously. Any idea that these passengers would have been allowed to deplane here?
Eventually air crew or passenger who mingle with the local West African population will become infected, fly home before they become seriously ill and will start some endemic outbreaks in the West. It is puzzling why the US government is not suspending air travel into the endemic areas.
Eventually air crew or passenger who mingle with the local West African population will become infected, fly home before they become seriously ill and will start some endemic outbreaks in the West. It is puzzling why the US government is not suspending air travel into the endemic areas.
Shilongo said they realised that the Ebola alarm was false, while Air Namibia general manager of quality and safety, Raul Sosa Riera said the crew became suspicious when they realised that the passenger was coughing, had body rashes and persistent diarrhea.
Is that a normal reaction to a food allergy???
Yes.
I’ve noticed one thing. The African countries KNOW they don’t have the medical facilities to handle an outbreak. Even an outbreak of just one or two people. So they’re already being vigilant and shutting off travel and borders.
On the other hand, OUR medical elites are sure that OUR facilities can handle and outbreak if it comes here. So they can justify not shutting down air transit from the affected areas or persons.
The first sounds like common sense. The latter sounds like a lot of hubris.
if a passenger is a lawyer i can see them claim that their rights are being infringed upon by being forced to stay aboard. I guess any passenger might make that claim and the airline,barring instructions from the feds, would likely allow them to disembark to avoid a lawsuit.
There was a story on Informante (leading Namibian newspaper) a couple of days ago. Guy was travelling from East Africa (not west) and was determined to have food poisoning.
still flying people in and out of ‘hot’ countries.
this won’t end well
plane ... from Johannesburg
_______________________________________________
Yes, and where had he been before Johannesburg?
The range of sophistication between countries in Africa is broad. Namibia, where I have spent a great deal of time, is pretty high on the spectrum. Yes, in certain areas there is grinding poverty and the issues associated with that, but the large cities like Windhoek, Walvis Bay, or Swapkopmund are very modern and can be quite nice.
It’s very normal for the beginning of a major viral infection...
No doubt.
Africa is a big place.
I’ve just noticed from news reports that African countries are taking the possibility of infection way more seriously than our own.
We have the ‘we’ll control it if it comes here’ attitude and justify a lax immigration/travel policy that way.
Hopefully it won’t appear in the wild here.
“It is puzzling why the US government is not suspending air travel into the endemic areas.”
Nero is in charge, and you are puzzled?
Yes, they should stop flights to the hot zones but that would only slow it down. People these days have no regard for anyone but themselves. They’ll just rent a car and drive it across the border to the nearest international airport no matter how sick they might be.
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