Perhaps what we need to fear most about Ebola isn't the virus mutating to become airborne or sprouting wings and flying here from West Africa, but the apparently lackadaisical attitude various government entities seem to have about it showing up here the old fashioned way—on a insufficiently inspected person, traveling on a plane from Liberia.
Doctors Without Borders and other organizations are starving for volunteers willing to plunge headlong into a crisis that continues to spin out of control, and one Park Slope couple is among the fearless who've been trying to help.
Bisi Ideraabdullah and her husband Mahhmoud operate Imani House, Inc., a non-profit headquartered in Brooklyn but with an outpost in Monrovia, Liberia, DNAinfo reports. While the clinic has historically offered services to women and children, the outbreak of Ebola has thrust it into the all-hands-on-deck vortex.
Mahmoud was wrapping up a six-month stint at the clinic, and was all set to fly back to Park Slope on September 8th when he heard that one of the facility's registrars had been treating a patient without permission. Mahmoud went to the registrar's home by way of investigation, but the man said he felt fine. So Mahmoud hopped on his plane a few hours later, everything's cool, man, the guy felt fine.
Ten days later, Mahmoud received word that another clinic staffer, who had been sitting next to the registrar, dropped dead from Ebola.
They soon learned that the registrar who Mahmoud had visited had misled his coworkers about his health and continued to show up to work, infecting them. They later found out that he tried to get tested for the virus but was turned away from the testing facility because he wasn't showing symptoms. He died on Sept. 21.
I'm not saying this is a full-blown Gaëtan Dugas situation, but the notion that we're expected to just take potential carriers at their word before they board their international flight fairly boggles the mind.
Mahmoud, however, did the responsible thing and locked himself in his house for three weeks, though the decision to self-quarantine was his alone, since health care workers need only alert the government to their interaction with Ebola if they've "had direct contact with the blood or body fluids," according to the CDC.
Mahmoud failed to display symptoms after 21 days, meaning he was in the clear—this time. He plans to return to Liberia next month to deliver supplies—including Hazmat gear—to clinic staff, who are currently using rain suits to protect themselves.
As a healthcare worker, Mahmoud said he was checked for a fever upon leaving the disease-ravaged country, but not during a layover in Brussels, nor upon arrival at JFK.
“I was a little surprised,” he said. “I would have thought that with the crisis as it exists in West Africa, there would have been [screening.] In this epidemic, it wouldn’t hurt as an extra precaution if they wanted to make sure it didn’t spread into the United States.”
Sleep tight, Park Slope!
