Ebola Scares Prompt Fears of Close, Crowded Spaces

In Arlington, a woman who vomited at the Pentagon Friday was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital to check for Ebola after saying she has recently traveled to western Africa. The bus driver and passengers were taken off the bus and put on another bus; they reportedly couldn’t leave for four hours until health authorities briefed them and got their contact information.

Health officials advised each of the 22 passengers, including the bus driver, to contact a doctor if they developed any symptoms in the next three weeks. Several Marines were among the passengers on board the bus, The Washington Post reported. The woman is in isolation at Fairfax Inova.

Planes, trains, cruise ships, tour buses: The Ebola fears spreading across the country are boosting jitters of getting caught in close, crowded spaces with anyone who is sick. Ebola can be transmitted as the result of close and direct physical contact with a patient’s infected body fluids, especially blood, feces and vomit.

If you’re flying, the CDC is telling airline crews to ask any sick passengers if they have traveled to western Africa in the past 21 days. If a passenger says they have traveled to the area, and they have any of Ebola symptoms—fever, severe headache, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, or unexplained bruising or bleeding—airlines are to immediately report the information to the CDC.

A U.S. Department of Transportation rule permits airlines to deny boarding to air travelers with serious contagious diseases that could spread during flight, including travelers with possible Ebola symptoms.

At Dulles International Airport, health officials this week began screening passengers arriving from west African countries. The airport reportedly sees about 15 to 55 passengers a day arrive from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

Frontier Airlines contacted passengers who were on the same flight Monday as a Dallas-area nurse who contracted Ebola from Thomas Eric Duncan, the patient who died at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

Another health care worker from the Dallas hospital who handled lab samples from Duncan is in quarantine on a Carnival cruise ship Friday in the Gulf of Mexico, according to several media reports. It’s been 19 days since the woman was in the lab, but authorities aren’t taking any chances.

A Belize TV station reported that the ship tried to get the woman to an air ambulance, but Belize refused to let the woman disembark. Cozumel, Mexico authorities declined to give the ship permission to make a scheduled stop at its port. Carnival was reimbursing passengers with a $200 shipboard credit, according to USA Today.

In Los Angeles, a man yelled “I have Ebola!” on a crowded bus and then exited and ran. Police were looking at surveillance video to try to track him down and possibly charge him with making a terrorist threat. Passengers got off the bus and the company took the bus to be cleaned and quarantined, according to CBS Los Angeles.

PHOTO from Patch archive