Aviation and the Ebola epidemic in West-Africa

[sn26567]

Virgin Atlantic gets onboard the fight against Ebola

It’s not uncommon for Virgin Atlantic to get behind important causes, regularly enlisting the help of passengers to do the same by donating any loose change when departing their aircraft. But this month they're making a special request...

Recently, the Virgin Atlantic team included a special charity request, asking passengers to dig deep and donate in support of Save the Children’s Ebola Crisis Appeal.

The Ebola epidemic has reached a critical stage and calls for global support, with more than 2.5million children under five living areas affected by Ebola in West Africa.

Save the Children is working on the frontline, doing whatever it can to help contain the outbreak, deliver essential heath services, and provide vital support to children who fall sick or are orphaned as a result of the disease.

[Flanker2]

Morocco is now refusing to host the Africa cup of nations out of fears for a spread of Ebola within its borders.
Yet, it still allows RAM to continue flights to the region.

[Passenger]

Morocco is now refusing to host the Africa cup of nations out of fears for a spread of Ebola within its borders.

Morocco indeed follows the advise of the World Health Organization who discourages the organisation of big sports tournaments in Africa. Brave decision from Morocco, as there was huge pressure from the African Football Confederation not to cancel the event:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/201 ... occo-ebola
and
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2014/11 ... -vs-ebola/

Yet, it still allows RAM to continue flights to the region.

Morocco indeed follows another advise of the World Health Organization not to discontinue flight operations to ebola regions. Same reason as for Brussels Airlines: to send as much medical volunteers and medical equipment as possible to the infected countries, which is the only way to avoid that ebola becomes epidemic in Africa - and later outside Africa.

[Flanker2]

As is apparent, don't you think that both advices contradict eachother?
Ok sure, freelance doctors are the differing factor, but as we already discussed, there are other solution to bring those doctors there, without endangering other people.

[b-west]

Yes, they completely contradict. After all, a few hundred trained medical professionals is exactly the same as thousands of football fans.

[FlightMate]

Like the flights are only filled up with medical staff. And like only a few hundred passengers went or will go through Marocco in the last/next months.
Are you so much deluded, you can't see similar points?

[Passenger]

As is apparent, don't you think that both advices contradict eachother?

Apparent, you say? “We agree to disagree” is more appropriate.

And no, both advices do not contradict: for the WHO, the priority is to stop ebola, and there is only one way to do that: field work by hundreds of volunteers, replaced on an extremely frequent basis. Example: the average roster for a volunteer mission with MSF worldwide is seven months. For ebola countries, it’s just 5 weeks.

"Ebola" nurses and doctors can only work in their protection outfit for just one hour. After that, they are too exhausted and they must be relieved by another team. They can recover a while, put on a new protection outfit, and start again for about one hour. And after 4 tot 6 weeks, they simply have to quit the job because even doctors and nurses are human beings. Hence the need for seats on commercial flights, as only this allows medical relief as it's needed.

For an international football tornament, it’s a different story: soccer fans will travel by overland coach (some with 100+ in one coach), by train, by boat, by minibus-taxi: this transport doens’t allow the primary health check = temperature control. Hence the WHO advice not to organize mass events in Africa.

[Flanker2]

This is the issue. MSF and their dozens of equivalents are equipped to provide care.
They're not set up to do massive tracking, detection, triage and monitoring work in order to stop the spread.
More than anything MSF are not set up to dictate policy. WHO has also been caught off-guard at every corner of this crisis.

The volunteers couldn't stop the spread when there were 500 cases, do you think that it'll work at 50.000 actual cases? This is the number we're nearing at alarming speed, if we're not already passed it?


What the Ebola countries need is a massive, global, military response that can set up field triage units in every single city block and village, together with hundreds of thousands of field hospital beds. They need troops who each get assigned x amounts of people to monitor for symptoms on a daily basis.
They need detectives who can track contacts.

MSF and friends can continue to provide care to those already diagnosed, but they can't do anything to stop this. They should be supported in that work by governments by providing airlift, but we can't rely on them to stop this epidemic.


You won't move me from my point of view that for every doctor or nurse that is transported back from an Ebola country, 4 or 5 potential hosts (including the docs) could take this thing global, at which point containment is no longer an option and the only option remains a cure.

I also remind you that a cure is easier said than done... Ebola research is as old if not older than HIV, yet like HIV, there is no cure found yet. Also, compared to Ebola, VIH is relatively benign. Ebola kills immediately.

[sn26567]

Senegal reopens its airports to flights from Ebola-affected countries

Senegal has announced the reopening of its air borders with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three countries affected by the outbreak of the Ebola virus.

Acceding to the request of the African heads of state who gathered for an ECOWAS meeting in Accra, who demanded the lifting of restrictions on movement of people to and from the three countries at the heart of the epidemic, the Senegalese president Macky Sall announced November 9, 2014 a "gradual lifting of the ban on air travel." No date has been specified. Senegal has already restored maritime connections according to the president, but the reopening of the land border with neighboring Guinea does not appear in the agenda.

Before the start of the epidemic, Dakar airport offered direct links to Conakry (Senegal Airlines, Douniah Airlines, Mauritania Airlines), Freetown (Arik Air, Eagle Atlantic Airlines). They were suspended by the airlines, the flight ban affecting mainly humanitarian teams. Brussels Airlines has on its side set up a technical stopover in Dakar for flights to destinations in the three countries affected by the epidemic.

[OO-ITR]

I wonder if SN can perform the CKY flights again like they did it before....

[sn26567]

Dr Craig Spencer is healed. He will leave the hospital today. There is nobody left with the Ebola virus in the U.S.

(and in France, you have more chance to die from Nabila than from Ebola, but that's just a joke )

[Passenger]

... and he has spoken to the press today:

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/11/healt ... index.html

[airazurxtror]

La France a renforcé samedi son dispositif de lutte contre Ebola en étendant ses contrôles de santé, déjà en vigueur pour les passagers des vols directs en provenance de Guinée, à ceux en provenance du Mali, et en déconseillant à ses ressortissants de se rendre à Bamako, la capitale.
La décision française a été prise alors que le Mali a annoncé vendredi avoir enregistré sur son sol le décès de trois personnes contaminées par le virus Ebola, sur quatre testées positives.

http://www.lalibre.be/dernieres-depeche ... ad0ee399bf

Saturday, France has stepped up its fight against Ebola by extending its health checks already in place for passengers on direct flights from Guinea to those from Mali , and discouraging its citizens to travel to Bamako , the capital.
The French decision was made while Mali said it had recorded on its soil the deaths of three people infected with Ebola virus , on four tested positive.

[Passenger]

Doctor Martin Salia, a U.S. resident citizen, has tested positive for ebola whilst working in his native country Sierra Leone. Last Saturday, the surgeon was repatriated from Sierra Leone to Nebraska by medical aircraft. Press reports state that he is in a far worse medical condition then Eric Duncan, the U.S. doctor who became ill after his return from West Africa but who survived it. Dr. Salia is now treated for ebola at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/15/healt ... index.html

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2014/11/1 ... a-miracle/

[sn26567]

Doctor Martin Salia, a U.S. resident citizen, has tested positive for ebola whilst working in his native country Sierra Leone. Last Saturday, the surgeon was repatriated from Sierra Leone to Nebraska by medical aircraft.

Sierra Leone doctor dies in US

Martin Salia, who has US residency and is married to an American, arrived for treatment in Nebraska on Saturday. But on Monday morning the Nebraska Medical Center said the 44-year-old had died. He was the second person to die from the virus in the US.

[Passenger]

Doctor Martin Salia, a U.S. resident citizen, has tested positive for ebola whilst working in his native country Sierra Leone. Last Saturday, the surgeon was repatriated from Sierra Leone to Nebraska by medical aircraft.

Sierra Leone doctor dies in US

Martin Salia, who has US residency and is married to an American, arrived for treatment in Nebraska on Saturday. But on Monday morning the Nebraska Medical Center said the 44-year-old had died. He was the second person to die from the virus in the US.

I was not unexpected: he was already extremely ill when he arrived and he was the first volunteer with ebola wha had to be carried off the repat aircraft.

[sn26567]

British National Health Service volunteers fly to Sierra Leone

The first group of NHS volunteers have left for Sierra Leone to help in the fight against the deadly Ebola virus.

Around 30 GPs, nurses, psychiatrists and emergency medicine consultants left London Heathrow just after 17:00 GMT, bound for the West African country.

They will train for a week in the capital Freetown before moving to treatment centres across the country.

Once in the country, the healthcare professionals will be diagnosing and treating those who have contracted Ebola.

Full article from BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30148979

[sn26567]

EASA is working on the conversion of Lufthansa medical evacuation plane for transport of Ebola patient. Aircraft will be ready to fly next week.

[Desert Rat]

One of the weapon to fight the virus... this product is approved to be used inside the A/C cabins to clean area in contacts with the pax.

http://huckerts.net/fr/umonium38/

And it's made in Belgium...

[Flanker2]

26 November update from the WHO:
15935 cases with 5689 deaths.

If accurate, it shows a slow down of growth Ebola cases and deaths growth, but still an acceleration of the disease.