| Submit your comments on this article |
| International-UN-NGOs |
| Hundreds exposed to African virus: officials |
| 2004-09-05 |
| CHARLES WEBSTER , Staff Writer 09/04/2004 TRENTON -- Hundreds of New Jersey Transit commuters and international air travelers were exposed to the Trenton man who was killed by a deadly African fever a week ago. The rarely seen in the U.S. African virus known as Lassa fever is spread through sneezes, spittle and other bodily fluids -- not casual contact -- but the man spent long periods of time confined in self-contained airplane cabins and transit railcars. State health officials revealed yesterday that the 38-year-old man from Boudinot Street in the western section of the city, known only as Joe, may have infected people on two international flights and an NJ Transit commuter train as he traveled from his native Africa to his Trenton home. According to state health officials, the man traveled to Liberia and Sierra Leone on business over the past five months. After he became ill from the infection, he decided to return home to Trenton. The man departed Freetown, Sierra Leone, at 11:15 p.m. on Aug. 23, 2004 onboard Astraeus Airlines flight 72 -- a Boeing 737 with as many as 150 people onboard. Flight 72 arrived three hours and 10 minutes later at London's Gatwick Airport at about 7:45 a.m., local time. Gatwick Airport is the busiest single runway airport in the world, and the sixth-busiest international airport in the world, serving more than 30 million passengers each year. August is the busiest travel period at the airport. Last year, 134,527 passengers passed through the airport; 80,079 passengers through the South Terminal and 54,178 through the North Terminal, on Aug. 16, according to statistics on the Gatwick Airport website. The man had a four-hour and 45-minute layover inside Gatwick Airport, where he had to make his way from the South Terminal to the North Terminal to meet his connecting flight. The man boarded Continental Airlines Flight 29, which departed Gatwick Airport about 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 24 and arrived in Newark, at 3:20 p.m. on the same afternoon. After collecting his baggage, the man boarded a New Jersey Transit train bound for Trenton sometime between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Aug. 24. After he arrived in Trenton, he traveled straight to his home on Boudinot Street, where his condition deteriorated to the point that he was taken to the emergency room at Capital Health System's Mercer Campus around 10:30 that evening. "The majority of Lassa fever cases are asymptomatic," explained state health commissioner Dr. Clifton Lacy yesterday in a teleconference with reporters and health officials. "There appears that there are only a few people who are at higher risk for infection." The Centers for Disease Control is focusing on several groups of people who could have been at risk from exposure to the dead man. - Those who traveled on the airplanes with the infected man. - The man's immediate family. He left behind a wife and six children ranging in age from an infant to 18 years old. - Transit employees or passengers on the NJ Transit train from Newark to Trenton. - Healthcare professionals at Capital Health System's Mercer Campus. State health officials will monitor the family and others for fever until Sept. 18. The CDC was working cooperatively with Continental Airlines yesterday to get a manifest of travelers on the plane from London and to contact the individual travelers most at risk. "There is no evidence of secondary cases," Lacy said. "But those at high-risk -- including the family -- will be monitored for the 21-day period." The man's family in Trenton and healthcare professionals could be feeling the effects of the deadly disease as early as this morning. The incubation period for symptoms is usually about 10 days, but can vary between seven to 21 days. The man died last Saturday. By Sept. 18, the last of any possibly infected individuals may be determined to be free of the disease -- barring any breakout from an already infected individual. Lassa fever infects as many as 300,000 people in Liberia each year, and about 5,000 die from the disease there. Lacy says only 1 percent of those infected die from the disease. The last case of Lassa fever seen in the U.S. was in 1989, and the last reported case in New Jersey was in 1984. ©The Trentonian-2004 |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #1 "The rarely seen in the U.S. African virus known as Lassa fever is spread through sneezes, spittle and other bodily fluids.." One can only hope that Chris Matthews hasn't gotten this disease for his guests sake since Chris frequently foams at the mouth. |
| Posted by: Bill Nelson 2004-09-05 6:19:44 PM |