Latin America Prepares Hospitals, Airport Screenings to Fight Ebola Threat
by Frances Martel
BreitBart.com
18 Aug 2014
With the world on high alert as West Africa continues to struggle against the wages of the Ebola virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) is warning affected countries to take extra precautions in containing the threat to their region. In response to the threat, the governments of Latin America are preparing quarantine spaces and airport screenings against potential carriers.
Argentine news outlet Infobae reports that, while most consider the threat to Latin America from the Ebola virus low, a number of nations in South America have begun taking precautions to prevent the potential spread of the virus from an international traveler–as occurred in Nigeria, where a Liberian passenger brought the virus to Lagos and has spread the virus to 11 others. He died of Ebola shortly after landing.
Argentina has likely gone the furthest in preparing for a potential outbreak, designating seven hospitals in urban areas as “Ebola-only” quarantine centers should any cases arise in the country. Buenos Aires’ Minister of Health Alejandro Collia told Infobae that the South American capital is “on an epidemic alert.” The alert means specific precautions have been taken in the capital: “specialty hospitals have already been designated and information has been distributed to medical teams on how to diagnose and treat a suspected case, how to prevent contraction [of the virus], and how to notify authorities of the presence of someone so gravely ill.”
Argentina does not, the government notes, have direct commercial flights to and from the affected areas, but it remains concerned that international travelers transferring in the country could bring the disease there. Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian man who brought Ebola to Nigeria, had landed in Lagos to transfer to a flight to Minnesota.
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