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Health experts: Little chance Ebola will reach city
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SHANGHAI health experts have advised residents not to panic about the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, saying there is little possibility of the disease reaching China.
Officials from the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission said yesterday that no cases have been detected in the city.
On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said 887 people had died of the virus in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, and that more than 1,600 people have been infected.
While flights are considered the prime route for Ebola reaching the city, Shanghai experts downplayed concerns.
“The virus doesn’t spread from the infected person to other people during its incubation period,” said Dr Lu Hongzhou, a leading infectious disease expert in the city and vice president of the Shanghai Public Health Center, a designated hospital for infectious disease.
“And if someone has symptoms, it is impossible for them to take an airplane from an infected region to Shanghai under current disease prevention and control measures,” said Lu.
Shanghai has only one direct flight to Africa — an Ethiopian Airlines service between Pudong International Airport and Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
The east African nation is far from the outbreak on the west of the continent.
Launched on March 30, the service was operating normally yesterday.
Meanwhile, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China has asked airports to undertake stringent quarantine inspections, especially on passengers and cargo from Ebola-affected regions.
Animal product imports from affected regions have been halted, the administration said.
China’s three major airports, Shanghai Pudong, Beijing Capital and Guangzhou Baiyun international airports, have flights — mostly non-direct — to 11 African nations.
These bring 82,000 passengers to China every month, according to the administration.
Low risk
The International Air Transport Association said the WHO hasn’t recommended restrictions on flights from Ebola-affected areas.
“Even if an Ebola patient did manage to get onboard a plane, there is a low risk of passing the virus to other passengers,” the association claimed.
Travel agencies in Shanghai said tourism to Africa has not been affected, as regular tourist destinations are far from the outbreak.
Itineraries offered usually cover Kenya in east Africa, Egypt in north Africa and South Africa.
“We’ve received a lot of calls from concerned tourists due to go on tours to Africa, asking about the current situation,” said Wang Wei, deputy general manager of the outbound tour center of the Shanghai China Travel International Ltd.
“But after learning that the routes are far from the virus area, nobody has asked to cancel their trip,” added Wang.
Online travel operator Ctrip said it has not received any tourism warnings from authorities in countries featured in its tour packages.
The Shanghai Datong Travel Agency said compared with other destinations, the number of Chinese tourists who travel to Africa is small.
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