Airlines could face new protocols to curb Ebola

A picture taken on July 24, 2014 shows staff of the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse putting on protective gear in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia. An American doctor battling West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has himself fallen sick with the disease in Liberia, Samaritan’s Purse said on on Sunday. PHOTO | AFP      

In Summary

International Civil Aviation Organisation Secretary General Raymond Benjamin said, “Until now (the virus) had not impacted commercial aviation, but now we’re affected.”

Montreal/Freetown. The deadly Ebola virus hitchhiking across borders for the first time aboard a pan-African airline could spell new flight restrictions aimed at containing outbreaks, the world aviation agency said Tuesday.

International Civil Aviation Organisation Secretary General Raymond Benjamin said, “Until now (the virus) had not impacted commercial aviation, but now we’re affected.”

Earlier, Togo-based airline ASKY announced the suspension of flights to and from the capitals of Liberia and Sierra Leone, both hit by an outbreak of Ebola virus.

This followed the death of one of its passengers from the virus on Friday after the 40-year-old man had traveled from Liberia to Nigeria via the Togolese capital Lome.

“We will have to act quickly.

“We will consult with the WHO (World Health Organization) to see what types of measures should be put in place” to guard against spreading the disease,” Benjamin said.

No date, however, has been set for an emergency meeting of both WHO and ICAO officials to discuss possible new protocols.

ASKY, which works in partnership with Ethiopian Airlines, serves 20 destinations in central and west Africa.

Since March, there have been 1,201 cases of Ebola and 672 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile a doctor in charge of an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone has become another victim of the deadly virus, the country’s health chief said Tuesday.

“Dr Omar Khan died at 2pm,” announced the head of Sierra Leone’s health services, Brima Kargbo.

Khan was admitted last week into an anti-Ebola treatment facility run by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) after testing positive for the virus.