Thread: CDC issues Ebola airline advisory

CDC issues Ebola airline advisory
Guidelines warn of 'severe, often-fatal disease'
4 hours ago


NEW YORK – Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is on record that Ebola poses little risk to the U.S. population, the agency still published guidance for airline flight crews, cleaning personnel and cargo workers regarding safe handling of infected passengers.

The advisory begins by describing Ebola as “a severe, often-fatal disease” that while rare, can spread from person to person, especially among health-care staff and other people who have close contact with an infected person.

The advisory then notes the likelihood of contracting Ebola is extremely low unless a person has direct contact with the bodily fluids of a person or animal that is infected and showing symptoms.

Trying to dampen fears of travel to West Africa, the location of the current outbreak, the advisory comments that a fever in a person who has traveled or lived in an area where Ebola is present is “likely to be caused by a more common infectious disease, but the person would need to be evaluated by a health care provider to be sure.”

To assist in the identification of Ebola symptoms, the CDC provided the following description of how the infection operates:

The incubation period, from exposure to when signs or symptoms appear, for Ebola ranges from 2 to 21 days. Early symptoms include sudden fever, chills, and muscle aches. Around the fifth day, a skin rash can occur. Nausea, vomiting, chest pain, sore throat, abdominal pain, and diarrhea may follow. Symptoms become increasingly severe and may include jaundice (yellow skin), severe weight loss, mental confusion, shock, and multi-organ failure.

The CDC advised that crew members on a flight with a passenger or crew member who is “ill with fever, jaundice, or bleeding” and has been traveling from or has recently been in an area at risk for the disease should follow these precautions:

Keep the sick person separated from others as much as possible.
Provide the sick person with a surgical mask (if the sick person can tolerate wearing one) to reduce the number of droplets expelled into the air by talking, sneezing, or coughing.
Give tissues to a sick person who cannot tolerate a mask. Provide a plastic bag for disposing of used tissues.
Wear impermeable disposable gloves for direct contact with blood or other body fluids.

In March, the CDC issued more comprehensive recommendations for cabin crew members on commercial aircraft to deal with someone onboard who is ill with a possible contagious infection, including but not limited to Ebola.

The more general guidelines advise airline crew members to treat any body fluid of ill persons suspected of having a contagious disease as if the body fluid is infectious.

The CDC notes that hand hygiene is the single most important infection-control measure, though it also advises wearing water impermeable, disposable gloves and face masks.

Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian government official who died from the Ebola virus after becoming ill on a flight to Nigeria from Liberia, as reported by the New York Daily News, fueled fears the disease can be spread through air travel.

Sawyer had family living in Minnesota and reportedly was scheduled to return to the U.S. in August.

The Associated Press reported officials with Nigeria’s Ministry of Health are monitoring for signs of Ebola some 50 additional passengers on the flight with Sawyer, although so far none have been quarantined.

Separately, BBC News has reported the West African airline ASKY has stopped flying to Liberia and Sierra Leone as a result of growing concern about the spread of the Ebola virus.

Delta and United, the two U.S. airlines that offer direct flights from the U.S. to West African destinations have not altered their flight operations, according to an International Business Times report.

John O’Connor, a CDC spokesman, told ABC News, “It’s true that anyone with an illness is just one plane ride from coming to the U.S., but we have precautions in place.”

ABC News did not report any precautions O’Connor may have specified.


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/cdc-downp...jtARYASP8gR.99

Patrick Sawyer thought his sister had malaria, too. As it turns out, she had the ebola virus which Sawyer contracted and died with before he could return to his family in Minnesota. Just sayin......

'Feverish' patient shuts down Charlotte NC emergency room.......

Updated: 5:05 p.m. Wednesday, July 30, 2014 | Posted: 10:09 a.m. Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Health official: Preliminary test of CMC patient shows malaria

By Trish Williford
CHARLOTTE, N.C. —
Mecklenburg County Health Department officials said preliminary tests on a patient admitted to Carolinas Medical Center - Main's Tuesday night who traveled from Africa indicated malaria.
The Health Department is waiting for final test results from CMC to determine if that is the case.
Those results are expected within seven days.
Malaria is a non-transmittable disease.
For more information on malaria, visit the CDC's website, here.
A corridor of CMC's Emergency Room was roped off on the first floor, near the entrance earlier Wednesday.

A security guard was posted outside, to prevent anyone from crossing the line.

During a 4 p.m. press conference Katie Passaretti, who is an infectious disease specialist with CMC, said precautions were put into place when patient was brought in Tuesday night. The patient was traveling from Africa and arrived at the hospital around 11:30 p.m.

Around 3 a.m. the security precautions were put into place at the hospital, Passaretti said.

Passaretti said they determined the patient did not have Ebola. The patient has been discharged home.

'There was great communication between hospital and CDC. The hospital staff did an excellent job," Passaretti said

Passaretti said there are no cases of Ebola in the United States

Earlier in the day, a CMC spokesperson released the following statement around noon Wednesday:
"Late last evening, a patient arrived at Carolinas Medical Center Emergency Department after visiting a country known for high risk of infectious diseases. We took all appropriate infection control measures to protect patients, staff, and visitors. After consulting with the Centers for Disease Control and NC Department of Health and Human Services, it appears the risk for communicable disease is low. No further testing is needed and the patient will be sent home. The Emergency Department at Carolinas Medical Center remains open and operating normally."

CMC officials said earlier Wednesday that a patient was being tested, but a spokesman would not specify what for. Officials with CMC said Wednesday afternoon the patient had recently visited Africa.
The Department of Health and Human Services said it was first informed of the situation Wednesday morning and was in close contact with Carolinas Healthcare System.
The clinical care team and public health officials have reviewed the case in great detail and have determined that the patient’s illness and epidemiologic information are not consistent with Ebola infection, DHHS said. Therefore, Ebola testing will not be performed.
The patient is receiving treatment for another unrelated condition and does not represent a public health threat, DHHS said.

This scare comes after news of a Charlotte missionary, Nancy Writebol, who tested positive for Ebola this weekend. Nancy and her husband, David, have been doing missionary work in Liberia for the past year.
Check back to wsoctv.com for updates to this story.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/news/loca...ng-test/ngq2K/

Ebola: Man tested for deadly virus in UK - increasing fears over threat to Britons

• Jul 30, 2014 06:24
• By Andrew Gregory, Sam Adams

The unnamed man had arrived back in Britain from Nigeria via Paris. It comes after it was revealed an American with Ebola was allowed on two flights while infected

A man has been tested for Ebola in the UK - increasing fears over the threat posed to Britain from the deadly disease.
He was tested at a hospital in Birmingham after arriving back in the UK from Nigeria via Paris.
Fortunately the man was given the all-clear after tests, the Daily Mail reports, but the scare has sharpened focus on the possible spread of the virus to Britain.
Meanwhile, doctors fear Ebola victim Patrick Sawyer may have sparked a worldwide spread of the killer disease after being allowed on two flights while infected.
And tonight a desperate race was on to find dozens of passengers who flew on the same jets as the 40-year-old American.
British doctors and border officials have been warned to be on the lookout for people in the UK showing signs of the disease.
Mr Sawyer was allowed to board an ASKY Airlines flight in Liberia, where Ebola is rife, despite vomiting and suffering from *diarrhoea. His sister was recently killed by the virus.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-n...-virus-3933743

EBOLA: Doctor Quarantined in Canada



(AFP) -- A Canadian doctor has put himself in quarantine as a precaution after spending weeks in West Africa treating patients with the deadly Ebola virus alongside an American doctor who is now infected, local media said Tuesday.

Azaria Marthyman of Victoria, British Columbia had worked in Liberia, one of four countries hit by an outbreak, with the Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse.
He has not tested positive for the virus, nor shown any symptoms since returning to Canada on Saturday, but one of his American colleagues, doctor Kent Brantly, is being treated for the disease.
"Azaria is symptom-free right now and there is no chance of being contagious with Ebola if you are not exhibiting symptoms," Melissa Strickland, a spokesperson for Samaritan's Purse, told broadcaster CTV.
Brantly, 33, became infected with Ebola while working with patients in the Liberian capital of Monrovia as he helped treat victims of the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
He "is not doing well. He is still in the early stages of the Ebola infection but having some daily struggles," David McRay, a friend and family medicine doctor in Fort Worth, Texas, told AFP by phone.
"He has requested that I not talk in detail about his symptoms and what he is experiencing, but he is weak and quite ill."

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2...osure-to-Ebola