Airlines on edge after Ebola nurse's flight
Airlines on edge after Ebola nurse's flight
Planes grounded, passengers probed but no West Africa ban
Published: 2 days ago
http://www.wnd.com/files/2012/01/Jer...atar-96x96.jpg Jerome R. Corsi
NEW YORK – In the wake of a Dallas nurse infected with the Ebola virus traveling on an airliner that subsequently made five trips, airlines worldwide are reacting with extreme caution to any sign of the disease.
An Air France jet was grounded Thursday in Madrid after a Nigerian passenger showed potential Ebola symptoms. The passenger on Air France flight 1300, with 156 passengers and seven crew members on board, fell ill during the flight and was shaking, a spokeswoman for Air France said in Madrid.
Federal officials told Fox News Thursday the Centers for Disease Control is considering putting health-care workers who are being monitored for Ebola on the TSA no-fly list.
The CDC is now searching for 132 passengers who were with Amber Joy Vinson, the second nurse to be infected with Ebola, on a flight from Cleveland to Dallas on Monday. Vinson had called the CDC and received clearance to board the flight despite disclosing that she had a “slight fever.”
The CDC allowed Vinson to fly because she reported her fever was 99.5, below the 100.4 threshold to restrict her travel. CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said Wednesday that Vinson never should have been allowed to fly.
France announced Wednesday passengers arriving at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport from Guinea’s capital, Conakry, will be screened, beginning on Saturday, BBC News reported.
In Russia, two students from Guinea who arrived at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport were admitted to a hospital. But the Russian health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said the move was part of a drill to test measures for handling African students returning from the holidays, reported Russia Today.
President Obama canceled a second day of campaigning and fundraising to hold meetings on Thursday with key U.S. health officials dealing with the Ebola crisis. In a statement from the White House Wednesday, Obama continued to insist the risk of Americans getting Ebola was “extremely low,” although he ordered a “much more aggressive response.”
The White House continues to refuse to consider imposing a travel ban on passengers traveling to the United States from West Africa.
What do YOU think? Do the Obama administration’s objections to Ebola travel bans make sense? Sound off in today’s WND poll!
The Frontier jet that carried Vinson from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth flew five additional legs in the Southeast, including to Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta.
Frontier Chief Executive David Siegel said in an email to employees on Wednesday night that the aircraft has been sent to Denver, where workers are scheduled to change its environmental filters and remove seat covers and carpets near Vinson’s seat, measures Siegel said went beyond CDC guidance, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Siegel said the airline has placed the six crew members who flew on the flight with Vinson on paid leave for 21 days. CDC had cleared the crew members to continue flying, but the airline, out of an abundance of caution, instructed the two pilots and four flight attendants to take a three-week break. The CDC continues to report 21 days as the maximum Ebola incubation period.
So far, the CDC has made no effort to identify and trace the passengers on the aircraft’s five flights after Vinson departed in Dallas. Vinson showed no symptoms of Ebola during the Cleveland-Dallas flight, according to the Frontier crew.
Two public schools in Ohio, Solon Middle School and Parkside Elementary School, are closed on Thursday as a precaution after an email sent to parents by the school district found a Solon Middle School staff member may have traveled aboard the same airplane, though not the same flight, as the Dallas nurse, according to WKYC-TV.
Fort Worth officials isolated a family with a child after learning family members had boarded the Frontier Airlines flight with Vinson.
A Fox News poll overnight found 60 percent of registered voters favor the imposition of a U.S. travel ban from West Africa, while only 35 percent are opposed.
According to the NBC affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth, KXAS-TV, Vinson dealt with bodily fluids in her treatment of Liberian Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, inserting catheters and drawing blood.
Tuesday, the day after she returned to Dallas, she reported a low-grade fever and was isolated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
On Wednesday afternoon, Vinson, wearing a full-body HAZMAT suit, boarded a charter air ambulance under contract with the State Department to take her to Atlanta, where she will be treated at Emory University Hospital, which successfully treated missionary health workers Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol.
She boarded the jet on her own, assisted by four medical care workers wearing HAZMAT suits.
KXAS-TV also reported discussions are under way between the CDC, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital and physicians to move nurse Nina Pham to Emory University Hospital on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Pham was reported to be in “good” condition in Dallas, able to communicate via Skype from the hospital isolation room with friends and family. Overnight, both nurses were reported in “stable condition,” though of the two nurses, Vinson was reported in a more serious condition.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital apologized for blunders in handling Ebola, CNN reported. Dr. Daniel Varga, the chief clinical officer for Texas Health Services, said the hospital mishandled the case of Thomas Eric Duncan, initially sending him home from the hospital even after he had a fever and said he had come from Liberia.
“Unfortunately, in our initial treatment of Mr. Duncan, despite our best intentions and a highly skilled medical team, we made mistakes,” Varga said in written testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “We did not correctly diagnose his symptoms as those of Ebola. We are deeply sorry.”
The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., has scheduled a hearing on the Ebola outbreak. Among those expected to testify are Frieden and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institute of Health. Subcommittee leaders had sent a letter to Health and Human Affairs Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Sept. 12 seeking more information about the outbreak and the government’s preparedness and response efforts.
Dallas County commissioners are expected to vote on Thursday to declare a local state of emergency over the Ebola crisis. The county “has the potential to suffer widespread or severe damage, injury, loss or threat of life resulting from the Ebola virus, according to a proposed draft of the declaration,” Bloomberg News reported. Approval of the proposed order would implement the county’s emergency management system, according to the declaration.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that confirmed cases of Ebola have now been treated in the following cities in Europe and the United States: Madrid, Spain; Leipzig, Germany; Hamburg, Germany; Frankfurt, Germany; Paris, France; London, England; Oslo, Norway; Omaha, Nebraska; Atlanta, Georgia; and Dallas, Texas.
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