Israel issues warnings to passengers from Ebola-infected countries

Israel has begun warning passengers returning from certain Ebola-infected countries that they are at risk and need to get themselves checked, a spokeswoman for the Israel Airports Authority told The Times of Israel on Friday.

The authority has been instructed to place signs to this effect and to hand out flyers that “clearly state” that arriving passengers from affected countries are at risk from the disease. The authority is not performing any checks itself, and nor is it filtering out or singling out any passengers for special treatment, she said.

The spokeswoman did not specify which countries she was referring to, but the Health Ministry has been warning since the summer that the countries in which there is the greatest concern over the spread of Ebola are Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Liberia has been hit hardest by the Ebola outbreak, recording more than 2,200 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. The total death toll as of Wednesday was 3,865, with most other deaths in Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The move to warn arriving passengers comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday convened a discussion on Israel’s preparedness for dealing with the Ebola virus. Among those participating were Health Minister Yael German, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz and Deputy Interior Minister Fania Kirshenbaum – as well as representatives of the Israel Police, Airports Authority and the Foreign Ministry.

A statement released after the meeting said that “it was decided to increase efforts to locate persons entering Israel from those countries.”

The Foreign Ministry and the Health Ministry have for several weeks been urging Israelis to avoid traveling to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone..

In guidelines issued in early August, the Health Ministry advised Israelis to avoid travel, “so far as possible, to the countries in which the disease is spreading: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.”

It noted that “thus far, there are no known diagnosed or suspected cases in Israel.”

“If illness with a fever of over 38 degrees appears within 21 days of returning to Israel from endemic countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone),” the guidelines urge, “go a hospital emergency room and inform them of the appearance of fever after having been in a country affected by Ebola. During this period, go only to the emergency room for medical treatment of illness with fever. Immediately on entering hospital, inform them of the circumstances of the case, in order to receive appropriate guidelines for protection.”

The ministry said it “does not anticipate an outbreak of the disease in Israel, but there could be imported cases, which the health system is prepared to deal with. The Ministry of Health has distributed a circular to professionals, with the aim of increasing awareness of the possibility of the disease being diagnosed, and the ways for dealing with the case in the event of morbidity in Israel.”

While the Defense Ministry rejected a US request last week to establish field hospitals in the Ebola-stricken western African countries, the Foreign Ministry announced Sunday that it was dispatching three teams — in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV) — to bordering African nations at risk of infection.

And IsraAID, an Israel-based international relief group with standing missions in South Sudan, Philippines, and tsunami-struck Japan, was on the ground in Sierra Leone this week as part of a national task force offering support to both health workers and the general population.