Sunday, October 5, 2014

Ebola scare at Newark: CDC officials rush to airport in full hazmat suits and detain passengers after Liberian man traveling with his daughter began vomiting on flight

Ebola scare at Newark: CDC officials rush to airport in full hazmat suits and detain passengers after Liberian man traveling with his daughter began vomiting on flight 

  • Fears virus could spread further - but ill man on plane does NOT have Ebola 
  • Hospital officials said man, thought to be 35, does not show symptoms
  • Instead he has another, minor illness which is easily treatable 
  • Man was flying on 261-passenger United Airlines flight with daughter
  • Reportedly started vomiting during flight, sparking fears of deadly virus
  • He and daughter were rushed off of plane after it landed around 2pm today
  • Passengers were held for hours as part of 'uncoordianted' response
By Mia De Graaf and Kieran Corcoran for MailOnline
Published: 12:58 EST, 4 October 2014 | Updated: 03:58 EST, 5 October 2014
Hazmat crews and disease control officials swooped on a plane this afternoon amid Ebola fears prompted by a Liberian man who started vomiting on a flight to Newark Liberty airport, just outside of New York City.
Passengers were held for hours as the man - thought to be 35 - and his young daughter were rushed off the plane to hospital. Doctors later confirmed that neither of them has the deadly virus.  
Hospital authorities said the man, believed to be around 35, instead has an unrelated disease which is easily treatable.
His daughter, believed to be 10, was also taken to hospital amid fears she was carrying the fatal virus. But she showed no symptoms of any illness at all, doctors said.
Panic stations: Officers hand out facemasks to protect from Ebola after a man was thought to have landed at Newark Liberty Airport with the deadly virus
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Panic stations: Officers hand out facemasks to protect from Ebola after a man was thought to have landed at Newark Liberty Airport with the deadly virus
On board: Welsh passenger Paul Chard tweeted this picture of immigration officials getting on the plane
On board: Welsh passenger Paul Chard tweeted this picture of immigration officials getting on the plane
A statement from University Hospital in Newark, where the two were take, said neither person has symptoms consistent with deadly Ebola, which is sweeping West Africa and has the U.S. on high alert.
Both will be released soon - though they will be monitored by health experts in case any symptoms do appear. 
It said: 'University Hospital in Newark, in coordination with federal, state and local public health officials, evaluated two individuals who arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport this afternoon. 
'After an examination by physicians at University Hospital, the symptoms of one individual were found to be consistent with another, minor treatable condition unrelated to Ebola.
'The second individual, who was traveling with the patient, was asymptomatic. The two individuals will be released with continued monitoring.'
Hazmat crews from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) earlier rushed to the plane, which arrived from Brussels, Belgium, at around 1.50pm and was left waiting on the tarmac.
CDC officials met a United Airlines flight at Newark Airport carrying a man possibly showing Ebola symptoms - but he was later cleared
CDC officials met a United Airlines flight at Newark Airport carrying a man possibly showing Ebola symptoms - but he was later cleared
Texas patient: Thomas Duncan became the first person to be diagnosed with the disease in the United States
Texas patient: Thomas Duncan became the first person to be diagnosed with the disease in the United States
The man, said to be 35 years old, traveling with his daughter, reported to be around 10, on a United Airlines flight from Brussels was vomiting as they landed in New Jersey at 1.50pm today.
They were both removed from the plane by a CDC crew wearing full Hazmat attire and taken to University Hospital in Newark.
It comes as the Ebola patient in Texas is said to have deteriorated to a 'critical' condition. 
The remaining passengers have now been allowed to leave after being forced to stay on the plane then wait in immigration.
One man - who got through customs and almost out of the airport before officials changed their minds and told him to stay - spoke of the confused response from the airport and health officials which left him and his fellow passengers in the dark.
Despite reports claiming the passenger was found to be noncontagious after initial examinations, the New York and New Jersey Port Authority told MailOnline the passenger was not cleared at the airport and has since been taken to hospital.
He has since been seen arriving at University Hospital in a wheelchair wearing protective overalls, gloves and a surgical mask.
The man is believed to have flown from Liberia via Brussels, Belgium - the same route taken by Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.
Duncan's condition has today been classed as 'critical' as he is treated for the disease in Dallas, Texas. Ten people linked to him have been classed as 'high risk'.
Today's possible case brought chaos and confusion to the airport - to the bewilderment of waiting passengers, who were not told about that the emergency was linked to Ebola for more than an hour.
Rich Burchett, a passenger on the flight who was sitting close to the potential Ebola victim, told how the man's face was covered with a mask and he was rushed to the back of the plane when flight attendants found he came from Liberia.
He said: 'Once they found out he was from Liberia they put a mask on him and his daughter, then they got him out of his seat and took him to somewhere at the back of the plane.'
Mr Burchett, who said he was 'very nervous' for his own health when he heard there was a risk of Ebola risk, told CNN that he was moved away from the area into another part of the plane after the man had been taken away.
He added that he did not see the man vomit while on board the plane - though officials were clear that this did occur at some point. 
Mr Burchett characterized the airport response as chaotic, adding that it raised questions about how a more contagious disease could be handled.
He said the situation was 'very uncoordinated inside the airport. Lots of people were giving directions - sometimes they were conflicting'.
An official statement from airport authorities referred only to an 'ill customer'.
Quarantined: Ten people have been assessed as 'high risk' and evacuated for Hazmat to sanitize the area
Quarantined: Ten people have been assessed as 'high risk' and evacuated for Hazmat to sanitize the area
It said: 'Upon arrival at Newark Airport from Brussels, medical professionals instructed that customers and crew of United flight 988 remain on board until they could assist an ill customer.'
'We are working with authorities and will accommodate our customers as quickly as we can.'
Welsh passenger Paul Chard tweeted a picture of immigration officials on board the plane, adding: 'Drama on the flight from BRU, pax taken off by CDC, we are stuck on the plane, Immigration staff now on!'
The 261 passengers were then handed leaflets titled, 'Possible Exposure: Ebola. What you need to do'.
It read: 'You are being given this card because a sick person who might have been exposed to Ebola sat near you on a plane OR had contact with you in an airport.
'Spread of Ebola on a plane or in an airport is NOT likely. However, CDC is being extra careful to ensure you safety.
'In the next few days, a public health official will let you know if the sick person has Ebola or not. 
'If the person has Ebola, you will be evaluated and given additional instructions.
'If the person does NOT have Ebola, no further action is needed.'
It goes on to explain that 'Ebola is a severe, often fatal disease that spreads through direct contact with an infected person'. 
At the bottom of the leaflet there is a note for passengers to hand to their doctors, explaining the situation and advising that they be examined.
The incident comes just a day after the government conceded that its handling of the crisis has so far been 'rocky' as Thomas Duncan is treated for the disease in Texas and 10 people are now classed as 'high risk'.
The handling of the Dallas case in the early stages of Duncan's illness has raised questions about how prepared local and national health officials were to handle that case and whether people were unnecessarily exposed.
Dr Anthony Fauci, a director at the National Institutes of Health, insisted to reporters at the White House that although it 'may be entirely conceivable' that there would be another Ebola case in the United States, the strength of the healthcare infrastructure 'would make it extraordinarily unlikely that we would have an outbreak.'
Authorities have narrowed their focus to about 50 people who had direct or indirect contact with the infected Liberian visitor, including 10 at high risk who are being checked twice daily for symptoms.
Dr Fauci said contact tracing is 'now' going on, five days after Duncan was hospitalized.
Officials were asked at a news conference why the patient was able to get past screening in his journey from Liberia on September 19 and then be sent home after telling a Dallas hospital a few days later about his travel to a country where there had been an Ebola outbreak.
The case has put authorities and the public on alert over concerns that the worst epidemic of Ebola on record could spread from West Africa, where it began in March. The World Health Organization on Friday updated its death toll to at least 3,439 out of 7,492 suspected, probable and confirmed cases. The epidemic has hit hardest in impoverished Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
At Friday's news conference, White House adviser Lisa Monaco was asked whether she would recommend to President Barack Obama that he impose a travel ban on West Africa, as some public officials have called for.
'Right now we believe those types of steps actually impede the response,' Monaco said. 


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