United trying to trace passengers on flights with Ebola victim
United Airlines is trying to contact hundreds of passengers who flew on two flights taken by Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan as he travelled from Liberia in western Africa to Dallas in the US.
The airline said it would be provided customers who flew on the same aircraft as Duncan with contact information for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, despite claiming there is ‘zero risk’ of them having become infected by the deadly virus.
Duncan flew from Liberia on September 19, apparently aboard a Brussels Airlines flight to the Belgian capital, where he had a layover of nearly seven hours before taking United Airlines Flight 951 to Dulles International Airport near Washington DC on September 20. After a wait of nearly three hours in the US capital, he took Flight 822 to Dallas-Fort Worth.
He was not displaying any symptoms at the time of his journey, only becoming ill four days after his arrival in the US, so public health officials say other passengers on the flights were at no risk of infection. Ebola is only transmitted when symptoms are already evident, they say.
Duncan developed symptoms of the disease on September 24 and went to a hospital emergency room, but doctors didn’t initially realise he was suffering from Ebola.
He returned to the hospital in an ambulance on September 28, and now is in isolation in a serious condition. Some 100 people are now being screened for potential exposure for Ebola after possibly coming into contact with Duncan after he arrived in Texas, federal health officials said.
United declined to say if it had heard from passengers on the two September 20 flights. TravelMole is waiting for a comment from Brussels Airlines regarding passengers on the same flight as Duncan from Liberia to Belgium.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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