Alarm grows as Ebola outbreak spurs more flight cancellations, border closures

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...50c_story.html

Alarm grows as Ebola outbreak spurs more flight cancellations, border closures
By Todd C. Frankel August 25 at 11:33 AM

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone ? Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was supposed to fly to West Africa on Monday to gauge the effects of the world?s worst Ebola outbreak.

Then his flight was canceled.

Brussels Airlines was forced to halt flights to the affected region after Senegal?s refusal this weekend to allow the Belgium-based carrier to touch down in Dakar, the capital, for crew changes. Senegal was sending a clear signal that it wanted nothing to do with flights going to Liberia, Guinea or Sierra Leone, where the outbreak rages on. This move was just the latest by a growing wave of countries and airlines that appear to want to stave off the Ebola threat by stopping travel in and out of places confronting the virus...

[sharon sanders]

Re: Alarm grows as Ebola outbreak spurs more flight cancellations, border closures

From: WorldHealthOrganizationNews@who.int
To: undisclosed-recipients@null, null@null

Subject: WHO Press Release: UN commits to surge Ebola response in Sierra Leone - warns that reduction of flights will hamper Ebola response
Date: Aug 25, 2014 3:30 PM
Dear journalists,

Below you will find a media release from our WHO Country Office in Sierra Leone


Best regards,

WHO Media Team





UN COMMITS TO SURGE EBOLA RESPONSE IN SIERRA LEONE

WARNS THAT REDUCTION OF FLIGHTS WILL HAMPER EBOLA RESPONSE



FREETOWN, Sierra Leone | 25 August 2014 ? After two days of intense meetings with senior government leaders and Ebola-response partners to take stock of the current response to the Ebola outbreak, a high-level UN delegation is committing to surge up the resources of the entire UN operation in Sierra Leone especially with a reinvigorated commitment from the World Health Organization.

?This outbreak is still advancing in many parts of the country,? says Dr David Nabarro, the UN Secretary-General?s Coordinator for the Ebola response and co-leader of the delegation. ?Our partnership with Sierra Leone to end the Ebola outbreak means upgrading all the UN is doing to get the scale-up required.?

But while the UN is planning to ramp up its work, more airlines are announcing they are discontinuing flights into the country over fear of the disease.

?The reduction in airlines flying into Freetown places a huge impact on our ability to bring in staff and supplies for this Ebola response,? says David McLachlan-Karr, the UN Resident Coordinator for Sierra Leone. ?We can suspend other programmes for several months to focus solely on Ebola; but we also need to bring in the surge. This is only possible if the flights return.?

As of 24 August, Sierra Leone has 904 confirmed cases of Ebola, 369 of those have died.

?The situation remains challenging here,? says Dr Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General for global health security at the World Health Organization and co-leader of the delegation. ?We will do all we can to get ahead of the outbreak, then we can stop it and help the country get back to normal.?

Responding to this outbreak demands a global partnership in which all society and nations take full responsibility. This means working together, being efficient and organized on all levels, and focusing on what is being achieved.

This outbreak demands global partnership and it is a social responsibility that will require everyone working together. Over the next few days, the delegation will continue working with the UN team and the government in Sierra Leone to develop the details of the upgraded response approach.





Media contacts:

Christy Feig (in Sierra Leone) +41 79 251 7055

Tarik Jasarevic (in Geneva) +41 79 367 6214

[Emily]

Re: Alarm grows as Ebola outbreak spurs more flight cancellations, border closures

Why aren't chartered flights feasible?

[Lizw]

Re: Alarm grows as Ebola outbreak spurs more flight cancellations, border closures

They're a lot more expensive, to begin with, and the aircraft may have to be brought in from other areas, so it's hard to schedule people as you can do with regular commercial flights. Also, from what I've been told, the typical aircraft available tend to be smaller two to four passenger craft with limited cargo space.

[Emily]

Re: Alarm grows as Ebola outbreak spurs more flight cancellations, border closures

That's unfortunate about the expense. I was hoping that with economy of scale, a full plane might prorate comparable to airline ticket costs. The size limitation sounds like a problem, too.

So no countries are offering military aircraft support?

[Lizw]

Re: Alarm grows as Ebola outbreak spurs more flight cancellations, border closures

Military helos would be ideal for getting in to the more rural areas once the personnel are in country. But customs is an issue for getting personnel in to begin with, if the airports are closed. You'd think bureaucratic functions could be bypassed in a situation this dire, but I suspect not.