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Who Warns Travel Restrictions Won’t Stop Ebola Spread
CDC issues alert to avoid unnecessary trips
WND
NEW YORK – The spread of Ebola from the West African epicenter cannot be stopped by restricting air travel or by closing borders, the World Health Organization in Geneva confirmed to WND Friday.
“The problem with air travel is that a person is not infectious unless they are actually showing symptoms,” Gregory Hartl, WHO spokesman in Geneva, told WND in a telephone interview.
“So if you were infected a week ago, but you don’t have a fever or any other symptoms yet, you can fly and you’re not infectious; you’re not a danger to anyone,” he said.
Hartl confirmed that a person with the Ebola virus might appear healthy while traveling but will manifest symptoms after reaching the destination country.
“There’s no way to detect beforehand that the person is going to get sick. That’s one reason border closures don’t work,” he said. “How are you going to stop a person who’s apparently well from traveling? You can’t.”
Separately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 3 travel alert on Thursday, warning to avoid unnecessary travel to the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In addition to warning travelers to avoid travel to West Africa, the CDC has begun assisting the governments of the West African nations with active screening and education efforts on the ground to prevent sick travelers from getting on airplanes.
The CDC has begun implementing protocols asking all airlines flying to or from West Africa to notify CDC immediately of all ill passengers on an airplane before arrival. The protocols include investigating all ill passengers and, if necessary, quarantining them.
Reposted with permission
