Medical professionals seek individuals who may have come into contact with Patrick Sawyer when he travelled by plane before his death
Ebola victim Patrick Sawyer and his wife
Medical professionals are trying to trace an unknown number of passengers and flight attendants who may have come into contact with an American citizen who died of Ebola.
No new cases have been recorded, but fears mount about the spread of the disease after fellow passengers from the two flights he took travelled on to other cities in Nigeria.Patrick Sawyer, a consultant to the Liberian finance ministry, flew between Liberia and Nigeria while he was contagious last week.He died five days after arriving in Lagos, where he had been quarantined.
Since the outbreak of the disease in February, 670 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have died from Ebola.
Nigerian authorities have so far identified 59 people who came into contact with Sawyer, and 20 of them have been tested for Ebola.Authorities are relying on “contact tracing” whereby medical professionals monitor anyone who came into contact with Mr Sawyer, as well as anyone they may have subsequently had contact with.
Health experts claim the risk of people contracting ebola, which can cause people to bleed from the eyes, mouth and ears, by air travel, is low, since the disease requires direct contact with bodily fluids such as urine, blood or saliva.Ebola cannot be spread through casual contact or breathing in the same air, for example.Experts say the disease can also be contracted from traces of faeces or vomit.
On his second flight on his way to Nigeria, witnesses claim Sawyer was vomiting and had diarrhoea. Around 50 other passengers were on this flight and could have been exposed to the disease after using the same lavatory as Mr Sawyer.The incident has now prompted questions over why Mr Sawyer was allowed to fly.
Dr David Heymann, professor of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “The best thing would be if people did not travel when they were sick, but the problem is people won’t say when they’re sick. They will lie in order to travel.”One of Liberia’s top medical professionals died from the disease on Sunday, while an American aid worker is in “grave” condition after he was infected.Over the weekend, Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said a new policy on inspecting and testing all outgoing and incoming passengers will be strictly observed.
She announced some borders were being closed and communities with large numbers of Ebola cases would be quarantined.Dr Heymann said: "The chance to stop it quickly was months ago before it crossed borders but this can still be stopped.“The important thing is for countries to be prepared when they get patients infected with Ebola, that they are isolated, family members are told what to do and health workers take the right steps."
