Ebola Scare

Reports coming through early today of a possible Ebola scare on the Carnival Magic ship that is returning to port in Texas, seems one of the people involved is already involved with one of the previous people who already had it.

As it is early in the reporting it will be interesting to see if the person was involved and why he or she was allowed to travel.

Fingers crossed that it is not serious for all those onboard.

Latest ...

From John Heald

John Heald Good morning. I wanted to make sure that we clear something up as I see some of you are asking. Here is our official statement. Cheers

Late afternoon on Wednesday, Oct. 15., we were made aware by the U.S. CDC of a guest sailing this week on board Carnival Magic who is a lab supervisor at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. At no point in time has the individual exhibited any symptoms or signs of infection and it has been 19 days since she was in the lab with the testing samples. She is deemed by CDC to be very low risk. At this time, the guest remains in isolation on board the ship and is not deemed to be a risk to any guests or crew. It is important to reiterate that the individual has no symptoms and has been isolated in an extreme abundance of caution. We are in close contact with the CDC and at this time it has been determined that the appropriate course of action is to simply keep the guest in isolation on board.

I am sure we all wish them well ...:)

Thanks for the update, I'm seeing it on the news now.

Story from UK`s Daily Mail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2796940/ebola-scare-caribbean-cruise-ship-woman-quarantined-cabin-coming-contact-infected-specimen.html

According to news reports here this morning the US Government contacted Belize to ask for assistance returning the 2 passengers to the US from Belize when the ship docked. Belize then refused to allow the ship to visit.

Related: Americans avoid air travel as Ebola spreads

I am not avoiding air travel. I will be flying to that war zone of Turkey (bordering Syria, Iran and Iraq) for our long-planned 'land cruise' on Tuesday.

It is not air-travel Americans should avoid, it is sex.

We are scheduled for a cruise on the Magic, leaving in 2 weeks. We are from the Dallas area and have been concerned about Ebola, but not in a panic as that does not benefit anyone. When the news broke this morning about the laboratory supervisor on the Magic, I said to my husband "it's following everywhere...even on vacation!" I pray that this is nothing and no passengers are affected, since she are 18 days out now and no symptoms so far. Where does this end? It's getting more scary everyday!

Related: Americans avoid air travel as Ebola spreads

 

I am not avoiding air travel. I will be flying to that war zone of Turkey (bordering Syria, Iran and Iraq) for our long-planned 'land cruise' on Tuesday.

 

It is not air-travel Americans should avoid, it is sex.

According to the CDC:

'Ebola is spread through direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes in, for example, the eyes, nose, or mouth) with. blood or body fluids (including but not limited to urine, saliva, sweat, feces, vomit, breast milk, and semen) of a person who is sick with Ebola.'

The problem is that once someone becomes infectious, and as the illness progresses, the body produces massive amounts of fluids as the virus attempts to leave its host in search of new ones. Trying to avoid those fluids is a great deal more difficult than it may seem, just as distinguishing it from Noro in the early stages is a great deal more difficult than it may seem.

I can certainly see why Belize might be worried, but I am sure that Carnival will do a great job sterilising the ship; it's a great deal easier to do that for Ebola than for Noro...

I think there is more to this story, the CDC contacted Carnival, why the hurry to get the person off the ship?

Alex ... Those were my thoughts as well.

I hope I am not being overly cynical about this, but I think the CDC is trying desperately to defend its own reputation, given that they seem to have been pretty sloppy about the measures they put in place when they knew that they had an Ebola case in Texas.

People are, perfectly legitimately in my view, critical about the apparent lack of sensible leadership, and the news that they are now not sure when the second nurse became ill -and therefore contagious- suggests that the CDC may have been making assumptions which may endanger a lot of people.

There's also the fact that Belize is a member of the British Commonwealth; HM Elizabeth II is, of course, a constitutional monarch but neither she nor the Belizan government jump when the USA tells them to, and the Belize government is clearly unwilling to let any possible source of infection into its remarkable and unique eco structure.

In the USA official statement it says that it is acting in an abundance of caution in wanting to repatriate the passenger; the Belize official statement says that it too is acting with an abundance of caution in refusing to allow the passenger to travel via their airport. It appears that they agree with both Alex and Sidari that there is more to this than meets the eye...

I just don't get it, if she has been asymptomatic for 19 days and she was permitted boarding. Why all the hurry now?

Anyway, if fighting Ebola is really a nightmare in developed countries, just think how it is in Africa :(

I hope to be wrong, but the hysteria will continue for a long time, and a cruise ship is a sensible place when it comes to spreading illnesses.