WE have, on several occasions, expressed grave concern about the Ebola virus spreading outside West Africa. Now, Ebola has come to America, thanks to one man.
That man, Thomas Eric Duncan, first flew from his native Liberia—an Ebola-hit country—to Belgium and, from there, traveled to Washington, D.C., and headed to Dallas, Texas, where he has relatives. He did not show symptoms of the disease before or during the long flight. He also did not show any obvious sign of being infected when he passed through US customs and immigration.
Duncan fell ill several days later, while staying with his relatives. He went to a major medical center nearby. While they were treating him, hospital personnel went through an Ebola checklist. Duncan said he had just come from an Ebola-infected area. That alone should have raised red flags. Considering the symptoms he had, immediate isolation would have been proper, but the system failed, as systems often do. The doctors who were treating Duncan were not informed of this critical information and he was sent home.
Two days later he returned in an ambulance, was placed in isolation, and found to be positive for Ebola.
Two weeks ago US President Barack Obama said, “Chances of an Ebola outbreak here are extremely low.” Other experts recently said chances of the US having an Ebola case by the end of 2014 was only 18 percent. Obviously, trusting government experts could be dangerous.
The health and economic risks posed by Ebola, if it reaches the Philippines, are enormous. Filipinos are not foolish. An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 1995 sent local prices down by 15 percent. Even chicken prices dropped 10 percent when people switched to eating fish.
One or two Ebola cases would probably be enough to empty malls and schools for some time. Economic activity would grind to a virtual halt, at least temporarily, and economic-growth forecasts would be useless.
The first line of Philippine defense is not the Department of Health, but the Bureau of Immigration at the airports.
Duncan could not have been diagnosed by taking his temperature with a thermometer. But the fact that his passport showed that he had been in an Ebola-infected area could have kept the virus out of the US.
As harsh as it is, no person who came from such an area in the last 30 days should be allowed to come to the Philippines without first being quarantined for the three-week incubation period. Monitoring the person is not going to be enough.
America could not keep an Ebola-infected person from entering the country, but it has the means to deal with any potential outbreak. The Philippines does not.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano