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| A hazmat truck and ambulance waits outside of Midland Memorial Hospital after a plane lands at MAF with a passenger displaying Ebola like symptoms. A Midland police unit blocks the entrance to the emergency bay, with a few officers walking around with masks on |
The patient was vomiting, which is one symptom of the Ebola virus. However Bustilloz said the patient did not have fever, a CDC symptom associated with Ebola.
Bustilloz said the fire department transported the female patient using hazmat and disease control procedures.
"At this point we are considering it not to be Ebola but we never want to rule anything completely out. It's highly unlikely that it is Ebola," Bustilloz said.
The female passenger travelled from Istanbul Turkey through London to Dallas Fort Worth where 2791 departed to Midland. The 69 passengers are all being tracked and were told to look out for symptoms although they were released.
The city just released the following statement:
Bustilloz said the fire department transported the female patient using hazmat and disease control procedures.
"At this point we are considering it not to be Ebola but we never want to rule anything completely out. It's highly unlikely that it is Ebola," Bustilloz said.
The female passenger travelled from Istanbul Turkey through London to Dallas Fort Worth where 2791 departed to Midland. The 69 passengers are all being tracked and were told to look out for symptoms although they were released.
The city just released the following statement:
"The captain of an American Eagle flight headed to Midland from Dallas called roughly 20 minutes before the plane landed at 11:05 p.m. to alert authorities that a female passenger was displaying flu-like symptoms. At some point in the flight, Ebola was mentioned. ...Because of this, Midland Fire Department personnel who are stationed at the airport were ready when the flight landed and boarded the plane to assess the situation. The female passenger was vomiting but did not have a fever. She was also traveling from Istanbul, Turkey, which has not had any confirmed Ebola cases. This makes Ebola highly unlikely in this scenario, but authorities took infectious disease precautions in transporting the passenger to a local hospital to be treated and monitored.
Passengers were monitored and spoken to by local health and emergency management authorities after leaving the plane and were released just after 12:30 this morning. Local officials remain in contact with the CDC and were throughout the evening. Officials have contact information for all 69 people aboard the flight and have asked that if any display any flu-like symptoms to immediately notify their local health department as a precautionary measure."
We had these kinds of alarms as well in Nigeria. Plane travel continues to be a problem. Ebola is NOT airborne but a positive patient onboard a plane can infect the rest of the passengers because body fluids have a potential to have contact with others in the plane toilet. Times are changing!
With files from CBS7 West Texas
