United Notifying Passengers on Ebola Patient Duncan's Flights

a reply to: lakesidepark

Have you not noticed that people are contagious for 3 weeks following their recovery? But not until symptoms appear are they contagious?! It only takes one microscopic Ebola virus particle to make a person sick.
Hazmat suits are worn for a reason. It is a deadly killer.

The Airline certainly did the right thing, at least if passengers feel symptomatic they can advise the doctor.nurse of their exposure. The Guy in Dallas was on a long haul flight - had to have visited the airplanes bathrooms a few times, how many people used them after him - we rarely like to think of this type of exposure. Even if you don't sit, its a fact guys sprinkle, it gets on your shoes, in a tiny bathroom its difficult to avoid. You use your hands to remove your shoes and hey presto. I'm concerned about the family members and others they have been in contact with. With that many people in one house all sharing facilities - I'd be surprised if they weren't exposed in the same way. Shame on the CDC if I can think of this transmission route - they should have too!. Its understandable that in Liberia etc transmission is easier because of lack of sanitary living conditions, but in the US its entirely preventable.

I hope the gentleman recovers - it will give us hope that with proper hospitalisation and medication it can be beaten.

TextThe patient, identified as Thomas Eric Duncan by CBS Dallas station KTVT, left Monrovia, Liberia, on Sept. 19 aboard a Brussels Airlines jet to the Belgian capital, according to a Belgian official. After layover of nearly seven hours, he boarded United Airlines Flight 951 to Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C. After another layover of nearly three hours, he then flew Flight 822 from Dulles to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the airline confirmed.

I don't understand how he could not have been symptomatic on his TWO flights back. He fell I'll on the 24th went to the hispitol was sent home and returned two days later in the late stages of the virus. How could he have not been symptomatic just 5 or 6 days prior to being in the stage he went back to the hospital in.
www.cbsnews.com...

TextAccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Duncan sought medical care Sept. 25 in Dallas after falling ill the day before. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health, told The Associated Press that even though Duncan took several flights to reach the U.S., his lack of symptoms at the time made it "extraordinarily unlikely" that he infected anyone else on the planes.

That's just such a short span of time. How was he not symptomatic.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: drwill

Well, to be fair, it was a caller who takes temperature readings on equipment with a probe that uses air temp, and he was basing his understanding of how these things would work based on the sensitivity of his own equipment which isn't designed or calibrated to measure human body temp. So I would take it with a grain of salt. It is possible that what they are working with in Liberia is legitimate equipment designed for the purpose because you certainly wouldn't want to spread ebola with a measure designed to prevent spreading it.

My husband uses those. They are sometimes more reliable and to a greater degree (no pun intended) than their medical counterparts.

And then what did they do with the planes? Did they decontaminate them?

This is the perfect example of bureaucracy a its lowest, everything has to be so compartmentalized that there were not enough authorities able or willing to make quick decisions without prior authorization. It always comes back to the almighty dollar, lawsuits filed by passengers and such, this is financial mitigation for both the airlines as well as the CDC.

If the passengers have not presented with symptoms by now, it is unlikely going to be the case with the information we have on Ebola and its transmission.

Alas, people will feel safer for this crumb. So be it.