SA goes on high alert for Ebola
Special measures in place at sea, air and land entry points
SOUTH Africa is on an Ebola high alert and officials are closely monitoring airports, ports and border posts in an effort to prevent the deadly virus entering the country.
Ships arriving from West Africa are being closely scrutinised and captains are required to inform port authorities about the health of their crew three days before they dock.
South African Airways, which flies to five cities in the affected region, said it had taken precautionary measures.
These include teaching cabin crew to identify symptoms in passengers and what to do when they are detected.
Special medical kits and protective clothing have been made available for crew. Aircraft carrying passengers suspected of having the virus will be quarantined until all passengers are cleared.
Since April, about 930 people have died and more than 1 700 have been infected with the virus, most of them in the West African nations of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
The World Health Organisation declared the outbreak a public health emergency this week.
There have been no confirmed cases in South Africa, but at least two people have been tested for Ebola in recent weeks. People were also coming forward voluntarily to be tested amid fear about the illness.
Officials from the Department of Health have stepped up the monitoring of border crossings and prepared 10 hospitals across South Africa to cope in the event of an outbreak.
Airports have established quarantine zones and are using heat sensors to check whether travellers are running a fever and if they required tests.
“We are on a high alert and are following developments in West Africa very closely,” said Health Department spokesman Joe Maila.
The OR Tambo, Cape Town and King Shaka international airports, as well as Lanseria in Johannesburg, have been identified as hot spots. The Beitbridge border post between South Africa and Zimbabwe was also being closely watched, said Maila.
“There has been no case of Ebola, nor a suspected case of Ebola, in South Africa. Therefore, South Africans have no reason to panic or be scared.”
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirmed that two patients had been tested for the virus in South Africa since the outbreak — and that more were coming forward asking to be tested. Both cases tested negative.
The institute’s deputy director, Lucille Blumberg, said testing was done only on people who had visited countries with confirmed Ebola cases, had a his-
We are following developments in West Africa very closely
tory of exposure and risk of infection, or had symptoms associated with Ebola without alternative medical reasons for those symptoms.
SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said there was no reason at this stage to cancel flights to West Africa, but this decision could be reviewed if the need arose.
He said precautionary measures had been “very effective up to this point”.
Doctors Without Borders director of operations Dr Bart Janssens said the WHO’s declaration of the outbreak as a public health emergency was positive, but that more resources needed to be pumped into the West African region to get the situation under control.
This week, the Health Department and the institute said South Africawould be sending a team and a mobile laboratory to West Africa to assist. savidesm@sundaytimes.co.za dolleyc@sundaytimes.co.za