Massachusetts: Boston - 5 passengers with flu-like symptoms removed from flight from Dubai, UAE

[BestlaStormcrow]

(Reuters) - Emergency crews in protective gear removed five passengers with flu-like symptoms from an airplane at Boston's Logan Airport on Monday, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority said.

The Emirates flight 237 was from Dubai, and none of the ill passengers had recently been to West Africa, said spokesman Matthew Brelis.

The region is in the midst of a deadly Ebola outbreak.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the people were wearing protective gear when they went on board the plane and removed the passengers," Brelis said.

He was not immediately able to provide further details.

(Reporting by Daniel Lovering; Writing by Richard Valdmanis)

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/10/13/us-health-usa-boston-idINKCN0I223T20141013

 

[Gemineye]

Re: Massachusetts: Boston - 5 passengers with flu-like symptoms removed from flight from Dubai, UAE

Given the part of the world they came from, I'd be more suspicious of MERS CoV than Ebola.

 

[Graupel]

Re: Massachusetts: Boston - 5 passengers with flu-like symptoms removed from flight from Dubai, UAE

Egads.... at what point are all these (false?) alarms going to totally swamp response capacity in big cities? And then what happens when there's a more credible issue? You can't optimize both sensitivity and specificity here....

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Massachusetts: Boston - 5 passengers with flu-like symptoms removed from flight from Dubai, UAE

Ill passengers on jet are deemed Ebola-free

Five passengers experiencing flu-like symptoms aboard an Emirates flight originating in Dubai were escorted off the plane Monday afternoon by a team in full hazmat suits at Logan International Airport ? prompting the second Ebola scare in Massachusetts within two days......

Following tests at two hospitals, the Boston Public Health Commission said, in a statement, ?After discussions with our partner hospitals Boston Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital, the Boston Public Health Commission?s Infectious Disease Bureau has determined that the patients who arrived on Emirates Flight #237 at Logan International Airport do not meet the criteria for any infections of public health concern, including Ebola, MERS, or meningococcal infection.

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[Laidback Al]

Re: Massachusetts: Boston - 5 passengers with flu-like symptoms removed from flight from Dubai, UAE

Egads.... at what point are all these (false?) alarms going to totally swamp response capacity in big cities? And then what happens when there's a more credible issue? You can't optimize both sensitivity and specificity here....

Right now Ebola is a hot media story. We will continue to see more of these media reports until some other hot topic supplants Ebola. Is is true that these "false" alarms sap resources, but the response to these suspected cases will continue unabated. No community wants negative media reports that they did not taken adequate precautions to identify and segregate possible Ebola cases.

It is almost a 100% certainty that more countries outside of Africa will experience their first or additional Ebola cases.

 

[BestlaStormcrow]

Re: Massachusetts: Boston - 5 passengers with flu-like symptoms removed from flight from Dubai, UAE

I don't like when they say "do not meet the criteria for any infections of public health concern". I'm sure it means just what it says, but after reading so many official statements saying this or that will or can't happen, I want to ask just what is that criteria and are they using too wide of a net?

And now I wish I had saved the story, but I read last week (pre-Dallas.2) that actors were going to show up at various emergency rooms as ebola-risk patients to help gauge preparedness of US hospitals. I certainly hope they nixed that idea.