Aviation and the Ebola epidemic in West-Africa

[sn26567]

H.M. Queen Mathilde at the E.U. conference on Ebola today:

"Belgium has been fully engaged in all these efforts. I am proud that my country has been at the forefront of the fight against Ebola. The disease was first discovered by a compatriot, Doctor Peter Piot. Médecins Sans Frontières has done extraordinary work and delivered a constant stream of volunteers. One of our B-FAST teams deployed a mobile lab in Guinea. And on the preventative front, research for the development of a reliable vaccine continues here too. On top of that, Brussels Airlines made the courageous decision to maintain its flights to the affected countries. Indeed, it became a real lifeline, ensuring that help and medical personnel could reach the affected areas, and that they could return home again afterwards."

At the same conference, Ernest Bai Koroma, President of Sierra Leone, specifically thanks Brussels Airlines for keeping air corridor open!

[sn26567]

Ernest Bai Koroma, President of Sierra Leone, specifically thanks Brussels Airlines for keeping air corridor open!

SN Brussels reaffirms commitment to continue flight services to Sierra Leone

On 2nd March 2015 SN Brussels which continues to operate in Sierra Leone throughout the Ebola outbreak hosted President Ernest Bai Koroma and entourage at their headquarters in Brussels, Belgium to reaffirm their commitment to continue to provide flight services to Sierra Leone.

President Koroma extolled the company for standing with the country since the outbreak and noted that fighting Ebola does not mean Sierra Leone should be isolated. He pointed out that government has been looking for the appropriate opportunity to say thanks, and said, "we cannot come to Brussels without meeting you to register our appreciation," he said and noted that the meeting will form the basis for a very strong partnership between Sierra Leone and the company.

Sierra Leone Ambasssdor to the Kingdom of Belgium Hon. Ibrahim Sorie Kamara said SN Brussels had gone the "extra mile with a smile" in trying to help the three most affected countries of the Ebola virus disease.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of SN Brussels Bernard Gustin, the company had always been anxious to remain in operation in Sierra Leone despite the Ebola outbreak. "It was critical that we remained in operations in Sierra Leone, especially faced with completely erratic behaviour because someone died in America who flew with the airline from West Africa," he explained and said it was an honour to have the president in Brussels.

He also dilated on the "Africa is not Ebola" campaign by calling on Europeans to strive to tell the world that "Africa is not Ebola" as it's a campaign they are working on. The CEO said that SN Brussels had maintained their services to 19 destinations in Africa, but however noted that tourism had been badly affected in The Gambia and Senegal even though they had no Ebola.

He therefore said the initiative is to market the continent as a land of opportunity, happiness and investment. africaisnotebola.com aims to position Africa as much more interesting than Ebola.

Mr. Gustin furthered that the initiative would give people the confidence to not just come to visit but to invest. "The image of Sierra Leone we want to see is that of people celebrating holiday at the beach rather than images of very sick people. But you know the media...good news is no news," the CEO of SN Brussels said.

Source: allAfrica.com

[b-west]

Somebody should maybe tell allAfrica the correct name of this SN Brussels... But apart from that, much respect for Brussels Airlines for continuing its flights to this countries.

Some defeatists came short of claiming apocalyptic scenes in Europe if Brussels Airlines didn't cancel their flights to those 3 Ebola countries. Their dark visions are yet to materialise.

[Stij]

B-west,

Don't get me wrong, it was and is vital SN continued / continues flying to Ebola affected countries,
but ebola is still there, we have to remain extremely prudent to keep the apocalypse out of Europe.
This said, I'm sure if we remain prudent as we're now, we're perfectly fine.

Cheers,

Stij

[OO-ITR]

http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.engli ... /1.2308355

http://www.demorgen.be/binnenland/vs-dr ... -a2289224/ in dutch

[Flanker2]

While Ebola continues its deadly march in Africa and across the world, all Western media outlets have stopped reporting on it. New cases still appear every week and the chances of the disease flying to other countries has never been higher. Yet, no new cases have been revealed outside the affected countries as governments are clearly cutting off the information.

WHO are reporting fewer and fewer new cases every week, yet this is contradictory to the nature of the disease. On the other hand, governments are unlocking progressively astronomic funds, which makes me wonder what is really going on.

IMO Ebola should have landed in Belgium a long time ago.
The question is: if there were confirmed cases in Belgium, would the government let us know?
I highly doubt it.

Alors qu’elle faisait la une de tous les médias à l’automne 2014, l’épidémie d’Ebola a aujourd’hui pratiquement disparu des grands titres des journaux dans les pays occidentaux. Pourtant, non, l'épidémie Ebola n'est pas encore éradiquée. Le pic épidémique semble être passé, mais le virus continue ses ravages

http://blogs.mediapart.fr/blog/eric-m/2 ... difference

[Inquirer]

Liberia is the first of the 3 countries to be officially declared free of Ebola by the WHO, after it didn't have to register a single new case for a specified time of 42 days, twice the maximum incubation period.
http://www.tijd.be/detail.art?a=9632041&n=3146&ckc=1

[convair]

Is that going to change the way SN organizes its flights to ROB?

[sn26567]

Air France resumes service to Freetown FNA in Sierra Leone.

SN never stopped flying there and I hope local people will remember when choosing an airline.

[sn26567]

A newly developed vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus is "highly effective" and could help prevent its spread in the current and future outbreaks, the World Health Organization said.

Trials of the VSV-EBOV vaccine began in March in Guinea -- one of three West African nations at the center of the current outbreak -- and have shown such promise that this week it was decided to extend immediate vaccination to "all people at risk," a WHO statement said.

[SFM]

As of today, SN reopens the crew base in Monrovia, so no more tech stops in DKR.
Flight SN243 BRU-FNA-ROB-BRU

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines_press_r ... -freetown/