From CBCNews.

Police officers are being deployed to Liberia’s
international airport to ensure passengers are screened
for Ebola symptoms as a major regional airline announced
Tuesday it was suspending flights to the cities hardest
hit by an outbreak that has killed more than 670 people in
West Africa.

“We have a presence of the police at the airport to
enforce what we’re doing,” said Binyah Kesselly, chairman
of the Liberia Airport Authority board. “So if you have a
flight and you are not complying with the rules, we will
not allow you to board.”

In a statement, ASKY Airlines said it was temporarily
halting flights not only to Monrovia — the capital of
Liberia — but also to Freetown, Sierra Leone. Flights will
continue to the capital of the third major country where
people have died — Guinea — though passengers departing
from there will be “screened for signs of the virus.”

Passengers at the airline’s hub in Lome, Togo also will be
screened by medical teams, it said.

“ASKY is determined to keep its passengers and staff safe
during this unsettling time,” the statement said.

The suspension comes after Patrick Sawyer, a 40-year-old
American man of Liberian descent who worked for the West
African nation’s Finance Ministry, died Friday in Nigeria
after taking several flights on ASKY Airlines. At the
time, Liberian authorities said they had not been
requiring health checks of departing passengers in
Monrovia.

His travels have caused widespread fear at a time when the
outbreak shows no signs of slowing in West Africa, where
medical facilities are scarce and where some affected
communities have in panic attacked the international
health workers trying to help them.

Sawyer’s sister had died of Ebola though he maintained he
had not had close physical contact with her when she was
sick. He took an ASKY Airlines flight from Liberia to
Ghana, then on to Togo and eventually to Nigeria where he
was immediately taken into quarantine until his death.

Now, health workers are scrambling to trace those who may
have been exposed to Sawyer across West Africa, including
flight attendants and fellow passengers.

At the Finance Ministry where Sawyer worked, officials
announced they were temporarily shutting down operations.
All employees who came into contact with Sawyer before he
left for Nigeria were being placed under surveillance, it
said.

Health experts say it is unlikely he could have infected
others with the virus that can cause victims to bleed from
the eyes, mouth and ears. Still, unsettling questions
remain: how could a man whose sister recently died from
Ebola manage to board a plane leaving the country? And
worse: could Ebola become the latest disease to be spread
by international air travel?

The World Health Organization is awaiting laboratory
confirmation after Nigerian health authorities said Sawyer
tested positive for Ebola, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl
said. The WHO has not recommended any travel restrictions
since the outbreak came to light.

“We would have to consider any travel recommendations very
carefully, but the best way to stop this outbreak is to
put the necessary measures in place at the source of
infection,” Hartl said. Closing borders “might help, but
it won’t be exhaustive or foolproof.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has
issued a Level 2 travel alert, warning travellers to
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to “avoid contact with
blood and body fluids of infected people to protect
themselves.”

The risk of travellers contracting Ebola is considered low
because it requires direct contact with bodily fluids or
secretions such as urine, blood, sweat or saliva, experts
say. Ebola can’t be spread like flu through casual contact
or breathing in the same air.

Patients are contagious only once the disease has
progressed to the point they show symptoms, according to
the WHO. And the most vulnerable are health care workers
and relatives who come in much closer contact with the
sick.

Still, witnesses say Sawyer was vomiting and had diarrhea
aboard at least one of his flights with some 50 other
passengers aboard. Ebola can be contracted from traces of
feces or vomit, experts say.

Sawyer was immediately quarantined upon arrival in Lagos —
a city of 21 million people — and Nigerian authorities say
his fellow travellers were advised of Ebola’s symptoms and
then were allowed to leave. The incubation period can be
as long as 21 days, meaning anyone infected may not fall
ill for several weeks.

Health officials rely on “contact tracing” — locating
anyone who may have been exposed, and then anyone who may
have come into contact with that person. That may prove
impossible, given that other passengers journeyed on to
dozens of other cities.

Patrick Sawyer had planned to visit his family in
Minnesota in August to attend two of his three daughters’
birthdays, his wife, Decontee Sawyer, told KSTP-TV in
Minnesota.

Two American aid workers in Liberia have tested positive
for the virus and are being treated there. Both had been
working with a Christian group, and are described as being
in “grave” condition.

Meanwhile, the mere prospect of Ebola in Africa’s most
populous nation has Nigerians on edge.

It’s an unprecedented public health scenario. Since 1976,
when the virus was first discovered, Ebola outbreaks were
limited to remote corners of Congo and Uganda, far from
urban centres, and stayed within the borders of a single
country. This time, cases first emerged in Guinea, and
before long hundreds of others were stricken in Liberia
and Sierra Leone.

Those are some of the poorest countries in the world, with
few doctors and nurses to treat sick patients let alone
determine who is well enough to travel. In Sawyer’s case,
it appears nothing was done to question him until he fell
sick on his second flight with Asky Airlines. An airline
spokesman would not comment on what precautions were being taken in the aftermath of Sawyer’s journey.

International travellers departing from the capitals of
Sierra Leone and Guinea are also being checked for signs
of fever, airport officials said. Buckets of chlorine are
also on hand at Sierra Leone’s airport in Freetown for
disinfection, authorities said.

Still, detecting Ebola in departing passengers might be
tricky, since its initial symptoms are similar to many
other diseases, including malaria and typhoid fever.

“It will be very difficult now to contain this outbreak
because it’s spread,” Heymann said. “The chance to stop it
quickly was months ago before it crossed borders … but
this can still be stopped if there is good hospital
infection control, contact tracing and collaboration
between countries.”

Nigerian authorities so far have identified 59 people who
came into contact with Sawyer and have tested 20, said
Lagos State Health Commissioner Jide Idris. He said there
have been no new cases of the disease.

Read more at CBCNews.