Aviation and the Ebola epidemic in West-Africa

[Inquirer]

I agree with what is said above: If the WHO is saying the risk of spreading via air transport is close to zero, I'd be extremely reluctant to doubt their professional expertise.

I am no doctor, yet I have the impression much of all this Ebola panic is in fact a fair bit of mass hysteria, driven by the fact the illness is mostly deadly, combined with the fact there is no cure readily available (yet), 2 very uncomfortable thoughts indeed, yet it's not a disease you can get like you get the flue either, and it's not like passengers are siting next to dying people on a flight, or the crew is taking physical care of terminally ill or even deceased persons, are they? It's no surprise infected westerners are predominantly healthcare workers who have been doing exactly that sort if things, for the matter.

[airazurxtror]

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france ... france.php

Extracts :

Le syndicat national du groupe Air France a lancé une pétition pour réclamer l'arrêt immédiat des vols de la compagnie aérienne à destination des pays touchés par l'épidémie.
L'inquiétude est grande chez le personnel navigant d'Air France. La compagnie aérienne dessert toujours Conakry en Guinée et Freetown au Sierra Leone. Or les deux pays sont actuellement très touchés par l'épidémie de virus Ebola. Et les hôtesses de l'air et stewards d'Air France craignent d'être exposés à la fièvre hémorragique, relate Le Parisien. «On a peur, témoigne une employée interrogée par le quotidien. On sait qu'on fait un métier à risque, les pays en guerre, les dictatures, d'accord, mais là… c'est différent.» L'inquiétude est telle qu'une pétition a été lancée par le syndicat national du groupe Air France, minoritaire. Celui-ci appelle à suspendre les vols en direction des pays touchés par l'épidémie. En l'espace de trois jours, quelque 700 salariés ont déjà répondu à l'appel du syndicat.
Depuis début juillet, le personnel est toutefois dans le droit de refuser de travailler sur un vol en direction de ces deux pays.
Air France assure également faire son possible pour éviter toute contagion. Un protocole a été mis en place avec les autorités sanitaires. Des instructions ont été adressées au personnel navigant et ces derniers sont briefés avant chaque vol. Des kits de protection, contenant des gants, des masques et du gel hydroalcoolique, sont aussi à leur disposition dans l'avion. Selon la compagnie aérienne, la température des passagers est également vérifiée au moment de l'embarquement. Une fois à destination, l'équipage est hébergé à Conakry. Si un cas suspect venait à se présenter dans l'avion, le malade devrait être isolé du reste des passagers et porter un masque. «On sait toutefois que les personnes atteintes pas le virus peuvent mettre jusqu'à trois semaines pour développer les symptômes», s'inquiète Patrick Henry-Haye.


The National Union of Air France group has launched a petition calling for the immediate cessation of the airline's flights to countries affected by the epidemic.
There is great concern among the aircrew from Air France. The airline still serves Guinea Conakry and Freetown in Sierra Leone. Now the two countries are currently heavily affected by the epidemic of Ebola virus. And the air hostesses and stewards of Air France fear exposure to hemorrhagic fever, reports Le Parisien. "We are scared, says an employee interviewed by the newspaper. We know we made ​​a risky business, countries at war, dictatorships, okay, but there ... it's different. "Worry is such that a petition has been launched by the national union group air France, the minority. This calls to suspend flights to the countries affected by the epidemic. In the space of three days, some 700 employees have already answered the call of the union.
Since early July, the staff is in the right to refuse to work on a flight to the two countries.

[b-west]

It is understandable that the crews are worried. Yet panicking will lead to nothing. You can find a Q&A concerning Ebola on the WHO site.
Point nr 12 deals with travelling:

12. Is it safe to travel during an outbreak? What is WHO’s travel advice?

During an outbreak, WHO reviews the public health situation regularly and recommends any travel or trade restrictions, if necessary, and may inform national authorities to implement it. WHO is currently reviewing its recommendations for travel and expects to issue advice in the coming days.

While travellers should always be vigilant with regard to their health and those around them, the risk of infection for travellers is very low since person-to-person transmission results from direct contact with the body fluids or secretions of an infected patient.

Is it safe to travel with persons who have Ebola?

As with any illness or disease, it is always possible that a person who has been exposed to Ebola virus may choose to travel. If the individual has not developed symptoms (see FAQ #4), they cannot transmit EVD to those around them. If the individual does have symptoms, they should seek immediate medical attention at the first sign they are feeling unwell. This may require either notifying the flight crew or ship crew or, upon arrival at a destination, seeking immediate medical attention. Travellers who show initial symptoms of EVD should be isolated to prevent further transmission. Although the risk to fellow travellers in such a situation is very low, contact tracing is recommended under these circumstances.
Is it safe to travel to West Africa on business or to visit family and friends?

The risk of a tourist or businessman/woman becoming infected with Ebola virus during a visit to the affected areas and developing disease after returning is extremely low, even if the visit included travel to the local areas from which primary cases have been reported. Transmission requires direct contact with blood, secretions, organs or other body fluids of infected living or dead persons or animal, all of which are unlikely exposures for the average traveller. In any event, tourists are advised to avoid all such contacts.

If you are visiting family or friends in the affected areas, the risk is similarly low, unless you have direct physical contact with a person who is ill or who has died. If this is the case, it is important to notify public health authorities and engage in contact tracing. Contact tracing is used to confirm you have not been exposed to EVD and to prevent further spread of the disease through monitoring.

[Passenger]

It is understandable that the crews are worried. Yet panicking will lead to nothing. You can find a Q&A concerning Ebola on the WHO site.

See also this specific WHO press release (14th August 2014) about Ebola & air travel:
viewtopic.php?p=304193#p304193

[Lysexpat]

Just a few questions:
-If WHO does know so well how disease can be transmitted, how does it come several of their workers got infected?
-If you start feeling the symptoms an hour into the flight to Brussels, will you tell the crew, being sure you will be left behind in the middle of nowhere and die after a precautionary landing or will you shut up and go to the tropic institute in Antwerp as soon as you land 5 hours later and have a small chance to survive?

[airazurxtror]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/ne ... /14230779/

extracts :

The World Health Organization announced Monday that it is urging countries affected by Ebola to "conduct exit screening at international airports, seaports and land crossings."
"Any person with an illness consistent with (Ebola) should not be allowed to travel unless the travel is part of an appropriate medical evacuation," the WHO said. "There should be no international travel of Ebola contacts or cases, unless the travel is part of an appropriate medical evacuation."

Health officials and airlines had been reluctant to conduct screenings because symptoms can be similar to other illnesses. Earlier attempts at screening for other diseases found few cases.

During the SARS outbreak in 2003, the WHO recommended screening passengers with questionnaires and thermal scanners, but few sick travelers were detected.
Hong Kong screened 36 million passengers and detected two cases, and Australia screened 1.8 million people arriving, and four cases were detected by border screening, according to a 2005 medical study.

[RoMax]

-If WHO does know so well how disease can be transmitted, how does it come several of their workers got infected?

Because they do nothing else than dealing with infected people and in some cases have direct contact with them, in such an environment the chances of infection are much much higher even when taking precautions. They are working in a completely different situation than those on board an aircraft.

Health officials and airlines had been reluctant to conduct screenings because symptoms can be similar to other illnesses. Earlier attempts at screening for other diseases found few cases.

When someone is discovered as having fever, he will be banned from boarding or examined. But of course that doesn't mean they stopped someone which is infected by Ebola. Screenings are intended to discover people who MIGHT be infected. If screening is performed well, they will stop lots of people, of which only a few will indeed be infected. That only proves that of all those people flying, only very few are indeed infected and the chances of finding those who are infected are very high.

-If you start feeling the symptoms an hour into the flight to Brussels, will you tell the crew, being sure you will be left behind in the middle of nowhere and die after a precautionary landing or will you shut up and go to the tropic institute in Antwerp as soon as you land 5 hours later and have a small chance to survive?

I'm not sure if BRU (or CDG) carries out additional screening upon arrival? If that's the case, that person will be discovered immediately after arrival and put in quarantine if considered needed. All the other passengers will probably be subject to increased observation (though there will be very very few having been in direct contact severe enough to possibly get infected).
Also, Ebola can develop very fast, crew might notice someone who is getting sick on board (as they are asked to look for these kind of passengers), even though he might suffer from something else than Ebola, they will take the neede precautions.

[sn26567]

A US relief agency is repatriating two of its American staff who have contracted the virus in Liberia.

A flight carrying the first of the patients - Dr Kent Brantly - landed at and US Air Force base in Georgia at about 16:00 GMT.

Dr Brantly has just been released from hospital. Ebola-free !

It is thus possible to cure this illness.

[Flanker2]

I'm sorry to float another conspiracy theory, but say that you're a pharmaceutical company who's discovered a cure for Ebola, with succesful trials on animals.
How can you test it out on human beings? After all this is a quick killer and clinical trials take a long time, so the only way of testing it is to gain access to a large population of trial subjects...
Once the cure is proven, you can charge about any amount for it and you can actually release the virus periodically to fill your pockets. People do sick things for money...

The lack of realism on this board is shocking.
I can't see how you can justify that flying to Ebola countries is good.
"The chances are small"

The chances of contracting STD's from unprotected sex with prostitutes is small too, but that doesn't mean you should do it, let alone encourage it.

[convair]

SN flights to Conakry, Freetown and Monrovia have bee canceled today. Did SN change its policy?

[airbuske]

With the recent decision by several West-African countries to close their borders to all airline traffic to and from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guineé it is dificult to operate the triangular flights.

[sn26567]

Then they could operate triangular flights exclusively between affected countries. But I guess it takes some time to organise this.

Envoyé de mon GT-I9100 en utilisant Tapatalk

[woutertheboy]

Found an interessing article on Reuters. SN still claims that these cancellations are only today & tomorrow.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/ ... BZ20140823

[SFM]

Then they could operate triangular flights exclusively between affected countries. But I guess it takes some time to organise this.

Not really feasible, because the crew doesn't want to stay in those affected countries (which I can understand). That's the advantage RAM has: they can have the same crew operate both legs of the flight, because for them it's short haul.
As more and more neighbouring countries are banning all flights from/to the affected countries, I'm not sure how SN will manage to continue their operations there...

[Lysexpat]

Then they could operate triangular flights exclusively between affected countries. But I guess it takes some time to organise this.

Not really feasible, because the crew doesn't want to stay in those affected countries (which I can understand). That's the advantage RAM has: they can have the same crew operate both legs of the flight, because for them it's short haul.
As more and more neighbouring countries are banning all flights from/to the affected countries, I'm not sure how SN will manage to continue their operations there...

A crew change in LPA or AGA should work, eventually with a heavy crew..

[tolipanebas]

Then they could operate triangular flights exclusively between affected countries. But I guess it takes some time to organise this.

Not really feasible, because the crew doesn't want to stay in those affected countries (which I can understand). That's the advantage RAM has: they can have the same crew operate both legs of the flight, because for them it's short haul.
As more and more neighbouring countries are banning all flights from/to the affected countries, I'm not sure how SN will manage to continue their operations there...

A crew change in LPA or AGA should work, eventually with a heavy crew..

Yes, or why not just skip the additional landing for a crew change and head back to BRU straight away?

BRU-FNA-ROB-BRU is perfectly faisable with a heavy crew; it's exactly same length as the DKR-GRU-DKR for SN2014 for instance.

It would definitely make things simpler than the constant odyssey in Africa looking for a place that can/wants to take a plane coming from FNA/ROB/CRY, even if nobody from the affected countries is actually getting off!

[Flanker2]

I see how this crisis can quickly become a major issue for SN.
There must already be millions of euro's worth of advance bookings for these routes. Suspending the routes can go beyond hurting them.

As this crisis worsens going forward, I think that SN should look at new options, such as operating the destinations on a non-stop charter basis, eventually adapting the capacity.

I also think that SN should adopt a responsible behavior and subject all people coming back from those destinations to a quarantine and blood test, in order to avoid the spread into Europe. I'm sure that the passengers would also appreciate that and SN could even charge a premium for those services.
Even if the person is in good health before boarding, it's also possible that the disease won't become active until during or after the trip, putting family, friends, medical personnel and others at risk.

Measuring temperatures with uncalibrated and unreliable IR sensors that only measure surface skin temperature is really not a reliable method of screening, IMO.

There have been false alarms in several countries, including the quarantining of 600 people in a German jobcentre for two hours last week after a west African woman collapsed with Ebolalike symptoms.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3af57f54 ... z3BKX9kyBo

[airazurxtror]

http://www.lesoir.be/635794/article/act ... sons-opera

Extraits :

La compagnie aérienne belge ne vole pour l’instant pas vers les trois pays africains touchés par l’épidémie du virus Ebola pour des « raisons opérationnelles ». Un arrêt pour un échange de personnel de bord à Dakar n’est en effet plus possible car le Sénégal n’autorise plus de vols en provenance de Guinée, de Sierra Leone et du Liberia. La compagnie aérienne est actuellement en discussion avec les différents acteurs concernés et œuvre à trouver une solution rapide afin de reprendre les vols.
Les vols de la compagnie vers le Liberia, la Sierra Leone et la Guinée sont suspendus depuis samedi.

If Brussels Airlines does not fly for the moment to the three African countries affected by the outbreak of the Ebola virus, it's for "operational reasons". A stop for an exchange of personnel at Dakar is indeed no more possible because the Senegal does not allow flights from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The airline is currently in discussions with the various parties concerned and is working to find a quick solution and resume flights.
The company flights to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have been suspended since Saturday.

[airazurxtror]

Publié le 26 août 2014 à 07h00 par François Duclos

Le Sénégal a rouvert son trafic aérien avec la Guinée, pour le plus grand bonheur de la compagnie aérienne Brussels Airlines qui cherchait depuis plusieurs jours une nouvelle escale pour ses équipages desservant les pays affectés par l’épidémie de virus Ebola.

http://www.air-journal.fr/2014-08-26-eb ... 13212.html

Flights can be resumed between Sénégal and Guinée.

[regi]

but today at noontime in the news it was anounced that SNBA would not more be allowed to make the Senegalese crew change stop.