EU to review Ebola screening procedures

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 16 Oktober 2014 | 22.40

European Union health ministers have agreed to begin an immediate review of the screening of passengers departing Ebola-hit countries in west Africa.

The health ministers meeting in Brussels had also agreed to "coordinate" measures at entry points to the 28-nation bloc, although any decision on screening for Ebola rests with individual countries.

The European Commission "will immediately undertake an audit of exit screening systems in place in the affected countries... to check their effectiveness and reinforce them as necessary," health commissioner Tonio Borg said.

The review of the exit screening in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone will be conducted in coordination with the World Health Organization, he said.

They would "coordinate national measures" at EU arrival points such as having common protocols and procedures on passenger questionnaires.

Officials said some 21 health ministers attended the meeting which was called at short notice.

With the decision up to member states to decide what measures to take, the meeting was focused on coordinating efforts to stop the spread of the worst-ever outbreak of the virus, which has killed almost 4,500 people, almost all in west Africa.

Several health workers have been evacuated back to Europe from Africa with Ebola, but the only recorded case of transmission on the continent so far is a Spanish nurse in Madrid.

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The United States has asked the Spanish government for permission to use the US air bases in Spain in its operation to combat the Ebola crisis in Africa.

A defence ministry source said the US has asked to use their Spanish bases as a transit point for logistics and engineers building field hospitals in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

"None of the planes will transport patients or people suspected to have contracted Ebola, or who have been in contact with infected people," he said.

"Spain will have a right to inspect the planes and passengers."

The United States is deploying up to 4,000 troops to west Africa to help contain the worst outbreak of the disease on record.

A decision is due to be announced tomorrow when Spanish Defence Minister Pedro Morenes meets US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in Washington.

The United States has four bases in Spain, at Moron de la Frontera near Seville and Rota near Cadiz in southern Spain, Torrejon de Ardoz near Madrid and Zaragoza in the north.

About 4,500 people have died in the outbreak, nearly all of them in west Africa.

Spain was thrust into the forefront of the crisis when a Spanish nurse in Madrid became the first person to contract the disease outside west Africa.

Madrid's Barajas International Airport today activated emergency measures after a passenger arriving on an Air France flight was suspected of possibly having Ebola.

Spain's health ministry confirmed that an Ebola emergency protocol had been set in motion without giving details.

Airport operator Aena and Air France both said in separate statements that a passenger on Air France 1300 from Lagos to Paris had started shaking during the flight.

Air France said the other passengers had disembarked and the plane will be disinfected. The return flight has been cancelled. 

In France, a nurse suspected of having caught the Ebola virus through contact with an infected humanitarian worker has been to hospital.

The woman, suffering from a high fever, was transferred under high security from her home in the Hauts de Seine region of greater Paris to the Begin de Saint-Mande military hospital outside the capital, Le Parisien daily said.

The woman had been in regular contact with a French volunteer nurse working with humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (Medecins sans Frontieres) who contracted Ebola in Liberia and was repatriated to France last month.

That nurse, the first French national to be infected with the disease, received an experimental treatment for the virus and subsequently recovered.

The Health Ministry could not be reached to confirm the report.

The ministry said last week it would not comment on suspected Ebola cases until after tests were performed.

BFM-TV said the nurse with the suspected case of Ebola had been quarantined but tests had yet to be carried out.

Meanwhile, a hospital in Connecticut is evaluating a patient with "Ebola-like symptoms," the hospital said in a statement.

"Yale-New Haven Hospital admitted a patient late Wednesday night for evaluation of Ebola-like symptoms. We have not confirmed or ruled-out any diagnosis at this point," the hospital said in the statement on its website.
              
A spokesman said he had no further information on the patient. 

Nurse informed authorities of fever

In the US, it has emerged that a nurse who has since been diagnosed with Ebola did notify the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that she had a fever before she travelled on a commercial flight.

Amber Vinson flew from Cleveland to Dallas on Monday, the day before she was diagnosed with Ebola, the CDC said.

The 29-year-old had treated Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of Ebola on 8 October, and was the first patient diagnosed with the virus in the US.

Ms Vinson's mother said her daughter was not ill at the time she was at her home.

CNN has reported that Ms Vinson told the CDC her temperature was 37.5C.

Since that was below the CDC's temperature threshold of 38C, she was not told not to fly.

Chances that other passengers were infected were very low because Ms Vinson did not vomit on the flight and was not bleeding, but she should not have been aboard, CDC Director Dr Thomas Frieden told reporters.

Ms Vinson was isolated immediately after reporting a fever on Tuesday, Texas Department of State Health Services officials said.

Frontier Airlines said six crew members have been put on paid leave for 21 days "out of an abundance of caution".

The two pilots and four flight attendants were on board Ms Vinson's flight, and the move follows information from the CDC that "she may have been symptomatic earlier than initially suspected, including the possibility of possessing symptoms while on board the flight".

Obama pledges 'more aggressive' response to outbreak

President Barack Obama has pledged a "much more aggressive" response in the US to the Ebola threat.

He also insisted that the risk of a serious outbreak on US soil was low.

After a crisis meeting with top aides at the White House, Mr Obama underlined the importance of helping African countries stem the spread of the virus, calling such aid "an investment in our own public health".

"If we are not responding internationally in an effective way ... then we could have problems," he said in comments aired on US television.

The meeting was attended by US Vice President Joe Biden, Mr Hagel, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, among others.

Mr Obama said meeting participants discussed "monitoring, supervising, overseeing in a much more aggressive way exactly what's taking place in Dallas" to ensure those lessons are "transmitted to hospitals and clinics all across the country".

"This is not a situation in which, like a flu, the risks of a rapid spread of the disease are imminent," Mr Obama said.

He added that he "shook hands with, hugged and kissed" nurses who had treated an Ebola patient at Emory University hospital in Atlanta.

"They followed the protocols. They knew what they were doing and I felt perfectly safe doing so," he said.

Last month, the US announced it would send at least 3,000 troops to west Africa to help fight the outbreak.

Since then Mr Obama has repeatedly criticised the international response to the health crisis as insufficient.


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