ATLANTA, October 10 (RIA Novosti) — With so little known about a deadly disease, one would think that with Ebola on the rampage in three west African countries, air travel to and from these countries would have been halted.
When riots or kidnappings present dangers in foreign lands, the State Department issues a travel advisory and warns Americans not to travel to those areas, sometimes preventing them from doing so. As the dangers associated with contracting Ebola go far beyond those that affect the person himself, one would think public officials would have halted traffic to and from West Africa. In fact, it is harder for a critic of the US government, especially if the critic is Muslim, to enter the US than for a person infected with Ebola. Indeed, there are a number of Russians who cannot enter the US because of unilaterally-imposed US sanctions. But there are no sanctions against Ebola.
Apparently, public health officials have an outdated and incorrect comprehension of Ebola and how it spreads. A sufficient number of medical personnel protected against Ebola patients’ body fluids but without respirators have now been infected to indicate that the current strain of Ebola can spread by air, like the flu. This also means surface contact could expose one to the deadly virus.
Airplane cleaning crews at New York LaGuardia are on strike because there are no precautions or protections for cleaners who could come into contact with Ebola from an infected passenger. Nor does the next passenger on an outgoing flight have any assurance that he will not be sitting in a seat which had been occupied by an Ebola carrier on the previous incoming flight.
In fact, something like this might have already occurred. A British citizen who hadn’t visited any of the countries where there are Ebola outbreaks has just died in Skopje, Macedonia, apparently from Ebola. His companion told authorities that they had travelled straight from the UK. The hotel has been sealed off and the hotel staff and ambulance crew have been isolated. I also assume that the infected man’s traveling companion has been quarantined, but the report doesn’t say.
Five US airports that have flights to the infected West African countries have imposed screening on incoming passengers, such as temperature checks. This is better than nothing, but if, as is believed, the deadly virus has a long incubation period, this screening would only catch people with symptoms, and, of course, there are many reasons for someone to have high temperatures, especially during the cold and flu season.
So what our incompetent public officials have arranged is screening that will quarantine people who have caught a cold but fail to catch those carrying Ebola who have not yet shown visible signs of carrying the disease.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official position of Sputnik.
