Air and Ocean Freight Carriers Warned of Ebola Transmission

The Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans with a case fatality rate of up to 90%. It is important to note that the virus is not generally known to be airborne and is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids.

The illness is often characterised by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. Any cases of persons who are suspected to have the disease should be reported to the nearest health unit without delay. Prompt medical care is essential to improving the rate of survival from the disease and it is also important to control spread of the disease and infection control procedures need to be started immediately.

The joint advisory note also warns that ISPS code requirements ensuring that unauthorised personnel do not board should be strictly enforced throughout the duration of the vessel being in port, adding that the shipowner/operator should avoid making crew changes in the ports of an affected country and after departure, the crew should be aware of the symptoms and report any occurring symptoms immediately to the person in charge of medical care. A spokesperson for the three organisations commented:

“Everyone is deeply concerned for those suffering from the Ebola epidemic and supportive of a coordinated world response to help them. We particularly applaud all those medical staff who are risking their lives to help. In the meantime we want to make sure that those in the world shipping industry play our part in ensuring the safety of crews visiting the affected countries, and minimising the risk of the virus spreading further.”

With passenger flight into and from Sierra Leone and Nigeria being suspended by a growing portfolio of air carriers such as Emirates and now British Airways nobody should underestimate the seriousness of the situation.

Further information and avoidance procedures regarding the recent Ebola outbreak can be found HERE.

Click here for related article on OnboardOnline

*Original story: Handy Shipping Guide via Google News (search term: shipping)
*Image credit: Wikimedia Flickr/AJ Cann