Georgia Rep. David Scott calls for ban on West African flights

U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Ga) repeated his calls for U.S. govement to ban flights from the West African countries most affected by the spread of Ebola, to protect American citizens from the virus. Scott represents Georgia’s 13^th congressional district.

”Lea from our experience, err on the side of caution, and do not let any more people into this country who are coming from infected areas, putting our people in great danger, Scott told 11Alive News on Wednesday. The countries with most cases of Ebola are Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

Also on Wednesday, the second healthcare worker from Texas who tested positive for Ebola landed in Atlanta for treatment at the Emory University hospital. Amber Vinson cared for the now deceased Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

Duncan, a Liberian citizen, flew into U.S. on a visa on September 20^th. In Liberia, his boss said that Duncan quit his job abruptly without giving a reason. Just days earlier, Duncan helped transport a dying Ebola patient to a local hospital, where the patient was tued away and died just hours later. Few days after this, Duncan did not note on his airport questionnaire that he had any contact with Ebola, according to Liberian govement, and took a flight to Brussels and then U.S.

It is likely that Duncan knew he had the disease and seeing that hospitals are tuing away patients in Liberia, he thought he had a better shot at survival in U.S. Ironically, the Texas hospital also initially tued Duncan away, because not all of his symptoms were relevant to an Ebola infection. It is still unclear whether Duncan admitted to having contact with an Ebola patient when he first came to the Texas hospital. He died on Oct. 8, 2014.

As many as 76 healthcare workers came into contact with Duncan while he was at the Texas Health Presbyterian.  Two of them are now being treated for the disease but the hospital waed that more might be infected.

The nurses from Presbyterian gave a statement via the National Nurses United union on Tuesday, sharply criticizing the hospital for handling of the Duncan case. They said they were not provided with proper gear to wear until three days after Duncan was admitted to the hospital. They also said that Duncan sat in the common waiting room for hours, with other patients nearby; the hospital administrators allegedly refused to isolate him at that time. The nurses also said they were not provided with any protocols to follow, but instead were given a number to call if they had any questions.

Clearly the Duncan case illustrates how some hospitals in U.S. might not be ready to deal with Ebola patients and how many people’s lives could be in danger just because one person with the virus makes some bad decisions. Vinson herself got on an airplane to Cleveland and then back to Texas, even though she already had a fever. She was being ”monitored for the virus at the time, whatever that means, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not stop her from flying, even after she called to report that she had a fever and was getting on a flight. At this time, the CDC is (supposedly) reaching out to all the passengers from those flights.

We can safely assume that desperate Ebola patients from West Africa might make attempts to fly into U.S. to get treatment.  Four airports in U.S. are now checking passengers from the African region for high fever, but that’s after they have already flown on an airplane with others. Also, some patients with Ebola start out with a low fever that can be treated with simple over-the-counter medication, making it undetectable during the airport screening.

Last week, 27 lawmakers sent a letter to President Barack Obama calling for a flight-ban from the West African countries affected by Ebola. And according to a new poll by Washington Post and ABC News, 67 percent of Americans support ”restricting entry to United States by people who have been in affected countries.