Congolese Migrants Monitored for Ebola Along Texas Border, Says Official



File Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection

BOB PRICE

15 Apr 2019


A public health official in Laredo, Texas, said 20 Congolese migrants were
monitored for Ebola and other diseases in shelters in his city and across
the Mexican border in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. Shortly after his
announcement during a Laredo City Council meeting, the World Health
Organization (WHO) considered declaring a “global emergency” in response to
a massive outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


“We have 8 Congolese right now in one of our shelters and a dozen in Nuevo
Laredo,” Laredo Health Director Dr. Hector Gonzalez told the Laredo City
Councilman George Altget during a council meeting on April 4. “For them, my
concern was Ebola.” He said that due to the time element, the Congolese
migrants were not developing symptoms of Ebola. “But, we’re on alert to
check that,” he said.

A report <https://www.who.int/ebola/situation-reports/drc-2018/en/>  from
the WHO states that, as of April 10, there have been more than 1,200
reported cases of Ebola in the Congo (1,140 confirmed, 66 probable). Those
cases resulted in the deaths of 764 patients (698 confirmed, 66 probable).
On Friday, The WHO decided the outbreak does not yet constitute a “Public
Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).” 

A top Red Cross official told
<https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/congo-s-ebola-outbre
ak-might-be-declared-global-emergency-n993856>  NBC News on Friday that he
is “more concerned than I have ever been” about the current outbreak of
Ebola spreading regionally. Emanuele Capobianco cited statistics from the
Congolese health ministry confirming 40 new cases over a two-day period last
week. NBC reported that the official called the rate unprecedented in this
particular outbreak.

Doctors Without Borders responded to the lack of action from the WHO.

“Whatever the official status of this outbreak is, it is clear that the
outbreak is not under control and therefore we need a better collective
effort, Gwenola Seroux, emergency manager for the organization said in a
written statement
<https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/news-stories/news/msf-ebol
a-epidemic-not-under-control-urgent-change-strategy-needed> . “What is most
important now if we want to gain control of this epidemic is to change the
way we are dealing with it.”

In Laredo, Dr. Gonzalez said migrants from other countries present other
health risks as well. He said they are monitoring migrants for yellow fever
and malaria. “We don’t commonly see these (diseases), but we could.”

Gonzalez said that 2,800 migrants have been released in Laredo at the bus
station in the past two and a half months. He said the city government is
working with charity organizations to provide health screenings. “We’ve had
flu. We’ve had a couple of potential respiratory infections that could be
communicable, but we ruled them out – [tuberculosis] and mumps.”

“TB is an ongoing issue in the state of Texas,’ the doctor explained.
“Between Texas, California, and New York, we have 50 percent of the cases of
TB and the border has the most. Brownsville has the biggest number of
cases.”

“We always have surveillance for different issues that I’ve expressed,” the
health director concluded. 

EM         -> { Trump for 2020 }

On the 49th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in
anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni
katika machafuko" 

 

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