Officials to hold public meeting on Ebola
(CNS): As concerns mount around the world over the growing threat that Ebola could now spread in Europe and the United States, Medical Officer of Health Dr Kiran Kumar will be hosting a general awareness and travel advisory public meeting Monday evening at the George Town Hospital. All are invited but residents from Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, the countries directly impacted by the potent virus, are asked to attend along with other interested members of the public. The health minister told CNS this week that the stakeholder committee continues to meet and action plans have been developed to deal with anyone who arrives in Cayman who could be infected.
The meeting will be held at the Hibiscus Conference room (next to the Pink Ladies Cafeteria) on Monday, 13 October at 5:30 pm at the Cayman Islands Hospital in George Town. For further information call the Public Health Department on 244-2621.
Category: Health
You all just wait til the cruise ships are empty
This is a serious situation and should not be taken lightly. It is quite scary and the world should not ignore it as we did at the first outbreak of AIDS in Africa. People the EBOLA situation is real and dangerous to the entire world.
With international flights from all over the world it is not impossible for someone from anywhere in the world with an infection to arrive here in Cayman and is unaware of their infection. Government just need to know that they are fully prepared for a case of EBOLA and how to treat it at anytime as it can come from anywhere. Our people need to stop this false sense of security when it comes to this disease.
It is easy for Ebola to get here and the person that would bring the infection might not even have stepped foot in Africa and likewise not aware that they were even exposed. We need to educate ourselves about this disease because all it takes is just one infection to shut anywhere down.
I hope this never arrives here in Cayman because we would all be in a world of trouble. However, due to the increase of travel it is only a matter of when and how prepared are we to handle the situation should one arrive. We need to realize that this disease can arrive here from anywhere in the world and an infected person don't have to be African or black, this is the scary thing, as a result we must not assume that only Africans will have the disease.
Am I reading this correctly?
All are invited: But residents from Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, which have been directly impacted by the potent virus, are asked to attend along with other interested members of the public.
Please! Dr. Kumar! If you want as many people as possible to attend, don't insist on having people from these countries attend. Which have [as you say] been directly impacted by this disease. You will scare the hell out of every Caymanian!
I CAN HEAR THEM NOW: "Boy he tink ah fool or wah" he tellin me, ah mus go to da meetin way them people go be! Ah dun-no if they goh da ting or not. Supose they jes com back from diah. Ah dun-no wah dey went. If "dey go be diah" ah nuh goin!
I'm not trying to make lite of this, but the preceding, is how many caymanians think and no-one can blame them. After all, this Ebola thing is "MORE THAN SERIOUS" because there is no cure, nor any vaccine to even control the symptoms.
So I say this to the members of our government: Gentlemen! Do whatever is necessary to protect the people of this Island from this potential pandemic by doing what is being done in other "first world countries" to negate any possibility of this viral disease coming to these shores, by, restricting flights from areas where people are known to have contracted "EBOLA" and have a ready supply of "has-mat" suits etc. available for our medical staff who would have to be at the fore-front should this thing come to our Island.
Let us all pray that this thing never comes to our island. MAY GOD PROTECT US!
To Sat:13:04. You say " negate any possibility of this viral disease coming to these shores, by, restricting flights from areas where people are known to have contracted "EBOLA" .Since we now know that at least one case of Ebola has been confirmed as being contracted in the USA are you prepared to ban flights from the US?(See http://www.weather.com/health/american-nurse-tests-positive-ebola-
13:04 Perhaps Dr Kumar should hold separate meetings for residents of the named countries,and for others.
Oh please, the press is just as clueless as everyone else. They say what they are told and when they don't agree, they do not publish. Credibility?
Let's attend and ask our questions there….. We must take this very serious.
Happy to see this. It's about time quite frankly. I hope they seriously consider banning flights from the extremely Ebola affected areas. Our Island is way too small to risk this kind of exposure to such a deadly and easily transmittable disease.
Not to mention the enormous affect it would have on our already declining economy.
The USA, Europe and Canada are the countries that should ban flights from extremely affected Ebola areas. There are no direct flight to Cayman from anywhere in Africa.
Do we have a quarantine unit or even one single WHO hazmat suit?
I think we have one, but the judge who presided over McKeeva's trial will have to return it.
Yes
If Ebola ever hits cayman that will be in….the public service department won't be able to contain it!!!!!We may not have a direct flight from those countries BUT we have alot of people from those countries coming in from different airlines (connecting airlines)….what about the church missionaries that go to Africa????? How to stop them from getting it and returning to cayman with it?
We have the suits, they just leak a bit, oh well, they'll do….
About time!!
This is a very serious issue and needs to be taken very seriously.
Shirly you cant be serious
Don't call me Shirley.
Oh yes, and we are about as equipped as the best facilities in Liberia to handle an infected person. So I do hope they plan to remove any infected persons ASAP to better equipped facilities overseas. Judging from how Chikungunya cases have been handled here let's hope CHS don't try to be heroes as we might just end up with nasty experiment in population control.
I was wondering how long it would take for this government to acknowledge this issue that can affect us !!!!
Please, lets be realistic, there is not one thing this so called system we have here willbe able to do to circumvent ebola from reaching and spreading in Cayman.
All will hear is "we are monitoring the situation". THEN BAM! it is here and spreading.
We could have direct flights from the ebola capital and we wouldn't cancel the route, perhaps only after a committie review.
Would depend on if the country had gambling and ATMs