African Health Alert: Kenya to ban travelers from Ebola-hit nations

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Kenya to ban travelers from Ebola-hit nations

Health workers are handed personal protective gear by a team leader, right before collecting the bodies of the deceased from streets in Monrovia, Liberia, Saturday, August 16, 2014.

Kenya is set to ban passengers traveling from three West African countries hit by the Ebola epidemic.

Kenya’s Health Ministry said on Saturday that the suspension takes effect midnight Tuesday for all ports of entry in the case of people traveling from or through Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

“This step is in line with the recognition of the extraordinary measures urgently required to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa,” the ministry noted, citing a recent statement by the World Health Organization (WHO) that the magnitude of the Ebola outbreak has been underrated.
After the announcement, Kenya Airways said it would suspend flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Several airlines have already suspended flights to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, including British Airways, Emirates Airlines, Arik Air and ASKY Airlines.

Last month, Nigeria was also hit by Ebola after a Liberian-American man sick with the disease flew to Lagos on an ASKY flight and infected several people before his death.

Meanwhile, Cameroonian authorities announced on Friday that the country, which borders Nigeria, would suspend all flights from all four Ebola-affected countries a day after Korean Air said it would temporarily stop its service to Kenya despite the fact that there are no cases of Ebola in the country.

The travel bans, however, have been denounced by the WHO as the deadly virus is said to have a low transmission risk during air travel, since it spreads through bodily fluids and is not airborne.

“When decisions are made by airline companies, they have to take into consideration their perceived risk and the real economic impact on countries that are already affected by a disease they have to control,” said Isabelle Nuttall, director of the WHO’s Global Capacity Alert and Response on Thursday.
There is no licensed treatment for Ebola, which is a form of hemorrhagic fever, with diarrhea, vomiting, and internal and external bleeding as its symptoms. The virus has so far killed 1,145 people across West Africa this year.

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