BMC on Ebola alert as flight with over 100 passengers from Liberia headed for Mumbai

A Meeting was called on emergency basis by the health department to discuss the required infrastructure and staff support.

We have been told that 116 passengers are suspected of an Ebola exposure.”
BMC’s additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh said. (Source: AP )

The Brihanmumbai municipal corporation (BMC) geared up to create additional provision for beds after receiving an alert from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport of a flight transporting over 100 passengers from Liberia, one of the four countries in West Africa currently facing the ongoing epidemic infection of the Ebola virus.

According to acting executive health officer (EHO) at BMC, Dr Shreedhar Kubal, immediate action plan was drawn in anticipation of the expected passengers.

“We are isolating 120 beds specially for these passengers. We have been told that 116 passengers are suspected of an Ebola exposure.”
BMC’s additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh said, “While a facility for 120 passengers is being mobilised, we expect that around 20 would need to get quarantined. Not all of them are infected with the virus.”

Currently, the civic body has only 20 isolation beds for infectious diseases– 10 in Kasturba hospital at Chinchpokli and another 10 in Jogeshwari’s Trauma hospital– which will now be increased to a capacity of 120 beds.

A Meeting was called on emergency basis by the health department to discuss the required infrastructure and staff support.

A spokesperson from the international airport, while confirming the news of the expected passengers from Liberia, said, “The flight has still not come in our radar so it is not landing very soon. We are trying to confirm which airlines is carrying these passengers and the total number on board.”

The spokesperson added that the Airport Hospital Organisation (APHO) is prepared to screen the patients and transfer the suspected cases to BMC run hospitals in the Maharashtra’s emergency ambulance services.

Currently, all the suspected cases will be admitted in Hindu Hriday Samrat Jogeshwari trauma care hospital where the provision for beds had been made. Deshmukh added that only those patients requiring treatment will be shifted to Kasturba hospital where 160 beds can be utilised for this purpose.

However, the threat of physical touch among passengers and probable spread of infection is also possible.

While the civic body is arranging entire isolation wards, chances of infection spreading from infected patient to a suspected patient admitted in the same ward can not be ruled out.

Acting EHO Kubal admitted the loophole, however, he added, “Right not we are focussing on creating beds for suspected cases. Isolation chambers are not immediately possible.”

A civic official said, “The isolation facility is getting arranged in accordance to the guidelines framed by experts in the city. Noted doctors and senior HODs have given few suggestions which are being implemented.”

In terms of protection to the medical staff which will handle suspected or confirmed Ebola patients, the BMC already has as many as 600 body suits for staffers and doctors to wear.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/maharashtra/bmc-on-alert-after-receiving-report-of-flight-transporting-over-100-liberia-passengers-exposed-to-ebola/

Do they know they were exposed, or is this a knee jerk reaction to a flight from Liberia?

218 on board with 116 boarding in Liberia of Indian citizenship? It's either bogus or knee jerk or.....

For India to be preparing for 120 beds you'd think all 116 are Indians. That many on one flight out of Liberia must mean some kind of exodus of its citizens. With 20 to be quarantined, I think it's an exodus which includes 20 healthcare workers who treated ebola patients but the article seems vague as to India's foreknowledge of what was happening well before the flight.

Can only imagine how the flight crew was acting. Passengers probably didn't get extra peanuts and soft drinks on that flight.

Lol, can't blame the flight crew if they locked themselves in the bathroom. They should have turned around and landed all them back in Liberia, and said "ok folks, we're here! Hope you enjoyed the short flight."

India is not close to being equipped to handle this. No doubt people are fleeing. Watch Nigeria in about a week from now.

Differant plane and countries. But activity is picking up.

In reading a few more articles from some India news agencies, these were all Indian nationals and they were split up between several different flights and airlines and taken to different airports in India for screening.  The real scary part I read was that the healthcare officials in India believe that any of those people exposed would show symptoms within the first week, so they do not plan on doing a full 21 day quarantine. YIKES!   That's all Ebola needs is to get a foot hold in another large population of people who are poor, have an insufficient healthcare system, and live in unhygienic conditions. 

We wouldn't even be having this discussion nor would they be seeking an additional 120 beds if they'd just shut the flights down!

The fact that planes still fly out of these infected countries daily is absolutely ridiculous. IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THIS BECOMES A WORLDWIDE EPIDEMIC! Perhaps that's exactly what the elitists of this world want in order to reduce the population.

Everyone will have perfect 20/20 hindsight a year from now. The WHO believes that the risk of contracting the Ebola virus via air is low.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2014/ebola-travel/en/

I contacted one of my state representatives from Colorado regarding my concern over flights from W. Africa. A teenybopper idiot called me and said; "Did you know that they take people's temperature before they board the plane?" I told her; "Did you know that someone might not exhibit symptoms until after they arrive home?"

Because the incubation period is 2 to 21 days, it makes absolutely no sense at all to allow any infected person to arrive in the U.S. Taking their temperature at the airport would only prevent someone already experiencing symptoms. Once an infected person arrives in the U.S. and starts vomiting, then their families would contract it, the hospital workers could contract it, and so on. How will they tell exactly who has Ebola in any U.S. hospital during flu season?

The situation has exploded in Africa, so there is absolutely no reason to believe that it couldn't explode elsewhere in the world.

I believe that it will show up at the hospitals first because someone with vomiting in the middle of December will be presumed to have the flu. How many can an infected Ebola patient infect in the ER waiting room or the ER considering that the germs on surfaces can infect people.