Ebola: A Travel Ban Won't Stop Outbreaks

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Title: Ebola: A Travel Ban Won't Stop Outbreaks
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While nations struggle to contain the epidemic in West Africa, other countries are discussing how to protect their own citizens, wit...

While nations struggle to contain the epidemic in West Africa, other countries are discussing how to protect their own citizens, with governments and health authorities repeatedly asked the same question:
Why don’t we just ban flights from Africa?
The idea seems logical. Prevent sick people entering the country, keep your loved ones safe.
Dr Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has tried to explain why he doesn’t support a travel ban:

Importantly, isolating countries won’t keep Ebola contained and away from American shores. Paradoxically, it will increase the risk that Ebola will spread in those countries and to other countries, and that we will have more patients who develop Ebola in the US. People will move between countries, even when governments restrict travel and trade. And that kind of travel becomes almost impossible to track.

Simply put: you can’t seal the country. If you blocked air travel, it would force desperate individuals to use alternative routes – over land and sea – to escape the epidemic. They’ll still end up in the US, except you won’t know where.

An attempted travel ban would be like locking yourself in a cabin on a sinking ship and praying the flood doesn’t seep through the gaps, and that the water pressure won’t be enough to burst through the door.

There are many reasons why a flight ban would be practically impossible to implement. For example, remember that Thomas Eric Duncan, the US patient who caught the Ebola virus in his native Liberia, flew to Texas via Brussels in Belgium. An effective ban would require international coordination. Would every nation agree to quarantine West Africa, to cripple their economy and choke them of humanitarian aid? Unlikely.

Even though Nigerian Government was criticize, placing no travel ban was a wise decision. Long Nigeria, thumbs up to Jonathan

Source: Forbes

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