Screening arrivals to Hong Kong International Airport for the deadly Ebola virus is not an effective strategy for tackling its spread, one of the scientists who first discovered the disease says.
Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that he assumes there will be an outbreak of the virus in China eventually, because of the high number of Chinese people working in Africa.
West Africa is experiencing the worst Ebola outbreak in history, with more than 4,500 deaths confirmed so far.
Cases have also been recorded in the United States, Germany, Spain, Norway, France and the UK.
Piot said that he expects the current outbreak to get worse, before it is brought under control in the next year. He stressed the importance of training people to spot at-risk passengers before they get onto airplanes.
“Widespread screening [of arrivals] in airports is not that effective, to be honest... the most cost-effective method is to screen people before they take the plane,” said Piot, in town to attend a symposium at the University of Hong Kong.
“In Africa, there are many Chinese working there. So that could be a risk for China in general, and I assume that one day [an outbreak of Ebola in China] will happen,” the Belgian expert added.
Ebola is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids. Piot said that there is no scientific evidence that the virus will become airborne.
The average fatality rate for Ebola cases is 50 per cent, and there are no licensed vaccines. The World Health Organisation has announced that the earliest that a vaccine could be made available would be mid-next year.
Piot said that three pharmaceutical firms are working on vaccines, and the results of one early trial of a drug treatment may be available by February.
He estimates the epidemic will last for another six to 12 months. “It will get worse for a while, then better afterwards,” Piot said.作者: coffee 時間: 2014-10-28 07:56
係天災定人禍先？作者: hkvcdso 時間: 2014-10-28 08:54 本帖最後由 hkvcdso 於 2014-10-28 09:29 編輯
