Flight to US carrying passenger from Ebola epicenter diverted… as officials reroute Americans to DC airport for screening

A plane carrying a Congolese national on board scheduled to fly from Paris to Detroit was diverted to Montreal following new travel restrictions amid an outbreak of Ebola. 

The passenger disembarked in Montreal, was assessed by a quarantine officer and flew back to Paris, Mark Johnson, a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada, said in a statement. 

The passenger was determined to be asymptomatic and the US-bound plane continued to Detroit on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the US government then announced that all Americans returning to the country from high-risk Ebola nations must rebook their travel arrangements to arrive at Dulles International Airport, a Washington, DC-area airport, in order to be screened for the deadly virus. 

The US State Department Consular Affairs said the requirement applies to Americans and lawful permanent residents (LPR) who were present in South Sudan, Uganda or the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the previous 21 days. 

The airport is located in Dulles, Virginia, about 30 miles outside of DC and is the main international airport serving the Washington, DC area. It saw about 29 million passengers last year, a record high, equating to about 79,500 people a day. 

The notice said the CDC and Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection will ‘apply enhanced public health screening at [Dulles] in response to the Ebola outbreak.’

The notice added: ‘The Dulles requirement applies to all passengers, including US citizens and LPRs, who were present in those countries. Please be prepared for flight changes or cancellations.’

The airport is located in Dulles, Virginia , about 30 miles outside of DC and is the main international airport serving the Washington, DC area

Washington, DC is home to several hospitals designated and specifically equipped to identify Ebola and safely isolate and provide critical care to patients. 

The World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 17. On the same day, Rwanda closed its land border with the DRC to prevent the spread of the virus. 

The CDC announced earlier this week it was increasing screening and monitoring for people arriving from areas affected by Ebola outbreaks and restricting entry for non-US passport holders if they have been in Uganda, the DRC or South Sudan in the past 21 days. 

The State Department currently lists a level 4 do not travel alert for the DRC for crime, unrest, terrorism and health reasons. 

The CDC has posted a level 3 reconsider travel notice for the country. 

The American embassy in the country said: ‘The US government is extremely limited in its ability to provide emergency services to US citizens in Ituri province. Do not travel to this area for any reason.’

Ituri province is the epicenter of the outbreak, which has killed at least 136 people and is suspected of infecting nearly 600 others, including an American doctor working in the DRC who was evacuated to Germany for treatment.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was ‘deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic,’ which involves the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola that has a mortality rate of up to 50 percent.

A man sprays a tent at an Ebola treatment center in Bunia, the capital city of Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

He said he expects the number of cases and deaths to rise in the coming weeks and added that the risk of spread of the outbreak in the DRC, South Sudan and Uganda is high at the national and regional level, but spread risk is low at the global level.

CDC officials said the risk to the general US public remains low but urged travelers to the area to avoid contact with any sick individuals.

The CDC also said travelers should watch for symptoms of Ebola for 21 days after leaving the DRC.

An American doctor working in the DRC has tested positive for the virus and six other Americans are feared to have been exposed. They’ve since been evacuated to Germany and the Czech Republic for care.

Concerns in the US are rising because the DRC’s men’s soccer team is scheduled to travel to the US and play in the World Cup in Houston, Texas, against Portugal on June 17.

CDC officials did not provide specifics surrounding screening and procedures ahead of the World Cup, but said that the agency is ‘actively working with FIFA to ensure safe traveling and passage’ and to ensure the ‘American public remains safe throughout’ the competition.

The agency is deploying personnel to the DRC and Uganda, along with personal protective equipment and additional resources to provide ‘direct technical assistance for aggressive disease tracking and contact tracing.’

The WHO said that the first known suspected case, a health worker in the DRC, developed symptoms on April 24, but ‘patient zero’ has not been identified, the head of the WHO team in the DRC Dr Anne Ancia told AP. 

This is the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC, where the virus is endemic, since it was discovered in 1976 but only the third caused by the Bundibugyo strain.

Guards stand outside the Rodolphe Merieux Laboratory, National Biomedical Research Institute (INRB), where samples from suspected Ebola cases are being tested in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The other two Bundibugyo outbreaks were in 2007 and 2012.

The most recent Ebola outbreaks in the DRC were in 2018 and 2020 and they killed more than 1,000 people each. The largest Ebola outbreak occurred in 2014 to 2016 in West Africa when more than 28,600 cases were reported.

Ebola spreads through contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person, as well as contact with contaminated objects or infected animals such as bats or primates.

Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain and weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain and unexplained bleeding or bruising.

The mortality rate for the Bundibugyo virus ranges from 25 to 50 percent.

The Zaire strain, which is the most common form of Ebola, can be treated with the drugs Inmazeb and Ebanga and the Ervebo vaccine, which is administered only during outbreaks.

Ancia said officials were considering using the Ervebo vaccine but anything approved would take months to become available, adding that she doesn’t ‘see that in two months we will be done with this outbreak.’