| Ebola Impacts
Transport
Alarming Travel
. . . Filipino workers walk past an Ebola virus ‘signs and symptoms’
flyer posted at a street in Manila, Philippines, last week. Thousands
of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in western African countries have
been evacuated after an Ebola virus outbreak.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has
said the number of deaths from Ebola has risen above 1,550 in West Africa
and the number of cases could be four times higher than that officially
registered in some areas.
It also called on airlines to resume "vital"
flights across the region, saying travel bans were threatening efforts
to beat the epidemic.
Many airports in Southeast Asia started
to scan travelers coming from Western African countries in order to avoid
contamination.
 “Folks
are not paying attention to the dangers of Ebola,” Issa Baluch said
last week when we met up in Boston.
“News reports state that more than 1,500
people have died from the Ebola virus in West Africa.”
The World Health Organization recently declared
the outbreak an international health emergency.
Companies such as Peoria, IL, based Caterpillar
Inc. and several mining companies have evacuated employees from Liberia.
British Airlines has canceled flights to the
region.
Exxon and Chevron say they’re waiting to
see whether public health authorities can contain the Ebola outbreak in
three West African countries.
The first confirmed U.S. patients who contracted
the disease in Liberia were two American relief workers. They were repatriated
and hospitalized, and recovered after being given an experimental drug
called ZMapp, said to be in short supply.
Although there is no cure for Ebola, there are
preventative measures and people can survive if they are rehydrated and
treated for their symptoms in a hospital.
Issa Baluch is involved in a major farming initiative
in Ghana as part of the Agribusiness Knowledge Center, a non-profit research
and training facility developed in association with the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Science, Technology and Globalization
Project of the Harvard Kennedy School.
The aim of the center is to build key strategic
alliances to help empower Ghanaian farm families and protect the environment.
“As part of this project, MIT and Harvard
have interns working in Ghana—we have recalled all of our interns
because of the severity of the situation,” Issa said.
“Many carriers have stopped service and
that impacts the economies and business across West Africa.
“Not only will it impact air travel, but
it will create shortages of food, fuel, and other supplies.
“Port cities receiving ocean transports
from Ebola-affected countries are also either banning or considering a
ban.
“There will be serious repercussions from
not paying attention to the Ebola pandemic.”
Geoffrey/Flossie
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