GENEVA – Ebola-affected countries should immediately begin exit screening all passengers leaving international airports, sea ports and major ground crossings, the U.N. health agency said.
The agency didn’t spell out which countries should start screening passengers, but noted in the recommendation made Monday that the Ebola outbreak involves transmission in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leona and a “small number of people in Nigeria.”
All countries, even those unaffected by the outbreak in West Africa, need to strengthen their ability to detect and immediately contain new cases without doing anything that unnecessarily interferes with international travel or trade, the agency said. But countries don’t need to impose travel restrictions and active screening of passengers if they do not share borders with Ebola-affected countries, it said.
Authorities in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea say they are already closely inspecting departing passengers for signs of ***** or illness.
The risk of the Ebola ***** being transmitted during air travel is low because unlike ********** such as influenza or tuberculosis, it is not spread by breathing air and airborne particles from an infected person.
Nonetheless, the ***** Health Organization said anyone with an illness consistent with the ***** should not be allowed to travel normally and all passengers should routinely wash their hands and avoid direct contact with body fluids of infected people.
“Transmission requires direct contact with *****, secretions, organs or other body fluids of infected living or **** persons or animals, all unlikely exposures for the average traveller,” the agency said in a statement.
The only way to contain the *******, for which there is no licensed treatment, is by isolating the **** and closely watching for signs of infection in those they have come into contact with. A person usually has no symptoms for two to 21 days, but after the incubation period the symptoms include *****, weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, according to WHO. Then comes vomiting, diarrhea, rash, and in some cases, bleeding.
The Geneva-based agency has been criticized by non-U.N. health organizations as being slow to call for an ********* response to the Ebola ******.
Some countries have banned direct flights to states hit by the *******. British Airways, Kenya Airways and a number of regional carriers have also cancelled flights to the capitals of Sierra Leone and Liberia despite the WHO’s recommendation that no travel or trade bans be put in place.
Last month, a Liberian-American man infected with Ebola boarded a flight from Liberia to Nigeria and **** days later; 11 people who came into contact with him have been infected.
A task force to monitor the impact of the Ebola ***** on travel and transport has been launched by the U.N. health agency along with the International Civil Aviation Organization, the ***** Tourism Organization, the Airports Council International, the International Air Transport Association and the ***** Travel and Tourism Council.
Most of the ********** in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have occurred when family members or friends act as caregivers for those who are ill or during burials that don’t follow strict infection prevention and control measures, according to WHO officials.