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How worried are we about the plane in Spain?

19 replies

Tigercake · 16/10/2014 18:54

Can't see a thread about this:Suspected case on plan in Madrid

How likely it's actually Ebola? What have they done with the passengers on the plane? (Potentially symptomatic passenger in confined space including limited toilet facilities = high risk of transmission??)

Eek.

OP posts:
ihatethecold · 16/10/2014 19:04

I'm not worried at all.

Trick0rTreatSmellYourFeet · 16/10/2014 19:07

Which airport did it fly in to? Im worried by this and ebola generally. My parents are in spain and will be flying out of madrid

Trick0rTreatSmellYourFeet · 16/10/2014 19:08

Shit madrid u say.

LittleBairn · 16/10/2014 19:50

It doesn't say why they think he may have Ebola other than he came from Nigera. Is quite likely that he was picked up with the testing of temps and because of his point of origin they are being cautious.
Now if he was vomiting up the isle then there maybe something to worry about but even Patrick Sawyer who left a Liberian hospital and flew to Nigera while shedding Ebola doesn't seem to have infected anyone on the flight.
Although he did infect others just not those on the same airplane.

TheLovelyBoots · 16/10/2014 19:59

If he were vomiting, that would be worrisome. Sweating is quite a lot less worrying, but certainly not worry-free.

Nigeria is nearly ebola-free.

This is quite a lot less worrying than other Ebola things we have to worry about.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 16/10/2014 20:08

as Littlebairn says Sawyer didnt infect anyone despite being very symptomatic when in the airport.

Nigeria has no reported ebola cases, so I think this is more likely to be a case of something like malaria, especially with the shivering.

They really really need to be able to rapid testing soon cos its going to cost airlines a fortune if they keep having to take planes out of commission and disinfect them.

TheLovelyBoots · 16/10/2014 20:10

as Littlebairn says Sawyer didnt infect anyone despite being very symptomatic when in the airport.

Hm. Is this true? I thought he did infect someone he was traveling with (albeit a co-worker). This co-worker might have just been sitting where someone else might have been, had he not been traveling with a co-worker.

But I would be so happy for someone to say I'm wrong.

LittleBairn · 16/10/2014 20:22

lovelyboots I'm not 100% sure on the Co-worker but if they worked in close quarters then yes highly likely to pass between then.
I do believe he did infect, and that person die, some official at the airport but I think that's because he had a lot of physical contact with him and at that point he was very ill. You do need to have very close contact.
But no one on the flight got Ebola from Sawyer.

TheLovelyBoots · 16/10/2014 20:24

OK - I thought the co-worker travelled with him. I can agree that sharing a phone/computer/pen etc is a death trap.

Tigercake · 16/10/2014 20:25

I agree in this case it seems more likely it will turn out not to be Ebola.

As a thought experiment though, if someone did have ebola on a flight and, for example, had diarrhoea, presumably the risk would be significant? Swiftly quarantining everyone would potentially be v effective at containment, whilst allowing people to disperse from an airport (potentially internationally) could spread the disease fairly widely.

At the moment the crisis is pretty much in 3 countries, and for them it is already devastating. However, it seems to me that with such a deadly disease other countries would be wise to exercise extreme caution with anyone potentially exposed. It is much harder to catch than flu/colds, but the consequences of infection are much much more likely to be fatal and once people get anywhere near infected bodily fluids the number of viruses needed to cause infection is very low. Better to severely inconvenience relatively small numbers of people for one month than risk even a localised outbreak. However, I'm not saying that applies to this plane at this point -just that if a scenario like this did turn out to be ebola I really hope the potential contacts would not be allowed to disperse far and wide.

I wonder what powers authorities have to detain people in quarantine? Hmmm.

OP posts:
DogStrummer · 16/10/2014 20:44

"I wonder what powers authorities have to detain people in quarantine?"

Looks like the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 has powers buried away in it. Sections 37 & 38 state that a Justice of the Peace can order someone removed to a hospital, if they suffer from a notifiable disease. Hopefully, the Health Secretary has made sure Ebola is on that list.

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/22

Not sure it would actually work in practice. Surely the police/customs need powers such that they can take action, and argue the toss in court about it later... Maybe later amendments give them that?

LittleBairn · 16/10/2014 21:28

Tigercake excrement seems to be one of the more infectious bodily fluids so yes if he had diarrhoea in the airplane bathroom and if he didn't wash his hands then that elevates the risk. The return flight that airplane was meant to make is now cancelled and it will be scrubbed down and possibly refurbished.

spacechimp · 16/10/2014 21:39

I understood the same as LittleBairn - the co-worker who was infected by Patrick Sawyer was not on the plane with him but met him at the airport in Lagos and accompanied him to hospital, so would have been in pretty close contact. There are reports that Patrick Sawyer was vomiting on the plane but no one on the flight was infected

Stratter5 · 16/10/2014 22:15

My money is on malaria.

Ilovexmastime · 17/10/2014 07:48

I'm not worried about it at all.

ChippingInLatteLover · 17/10/2014 14:21

Have there been any updates on this today? I've had the news on but haven't heard anything.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 17/10/2014 14:58

Nothing so far, but it takes two days usually for a test result to come back.

spacechimp · 17/10/2014 15:20

First tests negative for all possible Spain cases
www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/17/two-suspected-ebola-cases-spain-test-negative-disease

But they will have to repeat tests

thenumberseven · 17/10/2014 16:38

Was flying from Nigeria to Madrid with a stopover in Paris,flying Air France.
The passenger had a high temp,was shaking and complained of a headache.
There were 156 people aboard and other passengers were not allowed to collect their luggage.
They were told it would be delivered to them after desinfection.
The plane has been cleaned by Air France personnel

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