Ebola: Suspected Nigerian Passenger Causes Scare Aboard Flight

A Madrid airport has activated emergency measures after a passenger arriving on an Air France flight was suspected of having Ebola.

The passenger on Air France 1300 from Lagos, Nigeria, had started shivering with a fever during the flight which landed at Barajas International Airport in the Spanish capital.

Air France said the other passengers disembarked from the plane, which was flying via Paris. The plane will now be disinfected and the return flight has been cancelled.

Spain’s health ministry confirmed that an Ebola emergency protocol had been set in motion but declined to give details. There had been at least 160 people on board the flight which left Charles de Gaulle in Paris at 9.35am and arrived at 11.30am.

An Air France spokesperson said the passenger had been isolated ‘for medical checks’, but other sources at the airline suggested that he did not have Ebola.

France today became the fourth country after Britain, the United States and Canada to introduce screening for the virus at its main international airport. It came as the United Nations warned Ebola was outpacing efforts to combat the epidemic.

Liberia minister in quarantine after driver dies of Ebola

A Liberian minister said Thursday she had gone into quarantine voluntarily after her driver died of the Ebola virus sweeping west Africa.

Liberia has been the hardest hit by the epidemic, with 2,458 deaths out of 4,249 cases, about half the global total, according to World Health Organization figures.

Transport Minister Angela Cassell-Bush said she had quarantined herself after her personal driver became sick.

“I did not have any direct contact with him but I am doing it by precaution,” she said in a statement, adding that she would stay away from work for 21 days under agreed protocols.

It was not immediately known when her driver died.

Meanwhile, Liberia’s chief medical officer, Bernice Dahn, said she had returned to work on Monday after being placed in quarantine for 21 days following the death of her deputy last month.

“I am well,” she told AFP.

Nigerian applicants denied admission to US university over Ebola concerns

A TExas institution, Navarro College, has turned down admission applications received from countries affected by the Ebola Virus Disease, the CNBC reports.The decision, which is coming on the heels of global move towards eradication of discrimination against people affected by the disease, has already affected two Nigerians.

Kamorudeen Abidogun, a Nigerian who lives in Texas, said he received two rejection letters from Navarro, a two-year community college with a campus about 58 miles of Dallas. Abidogun has five relatives in Nigeria who applied to the school and used his home in Richmond, Texas, as a US mailing address.The college was said to have rejected the applications, citing confirmed Ebola cases in the country as the reason for the decision.

The letter says, “With sincere regret, I must report that Navarro College is not able to offer you acceptance for the Spring 2015 term. Unfortunately, Navarro College is not accepting international students from countries with confirmed Ebola cases.”But the college dismissed the claim, saying it only changed its ongoing foreign student admission catchment in favour of China and Indonesia.

Abidogun said his five relatives who applied to Navarro live in Ibadan, Oyo State, which has not recorded any case of EVD.

Navarro talks about the Ebola virus on the section of its website devoted to admissions information for international students, but it does not mention any policy regarding its role in the admission process.

Idris Bello, a Nigerian who lives in East Texas, tweeted a photo of the letter to bring attention to the situation. Bello, in an interview with CNBC, described the college’s purported policy “embarrassing.”In his tweet, Bello noted the irony of the school having such a policy for foreign students when 26-year-old nurse, Nina Pham, in nearby Dallas, recently contracted the disease after treating a Liberian victim Thomas Eric Duncan.

After repeated requests for comments on the situation, Navarro’s Vice President for Access and Accountability, Dewayne Gragg, sent an email to CNBC.com.

The email reads: “Our college values its diverse population of international students. This fall we have almost 100 students from Africa. Unfortunately, some students received incorrect information regarding their applications to the institution.

“As part of our new honours programme, the college restructured the international department to include focused recruitment from certain countries each year. Our focus for 2014-15 is on China and Indonesia.

“Other countries will be identified and recruitment efforts put in place once we launch our new honours program fall 2015. We apologise for any misinformation that may have been shared with students. Additional information regarding our progress with this new initiative will be posted on our website.”

When asked for further clarification, and to answer whether in fact there had been a policy to reject students based on the presence of Ebola in their countries of origin, Gragg said, “The prior email speaks for the college.”

China sends experimental Ebola drug to Africa

A Chinese drugmaker with military ties has sent an experimental Ebola drug to Africa for use by Chinese aid workers and is planning clinical trials there to combat the disease, executives at the firm told Reuters on Thursday.

Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd has supplied several thousand doses of its drug JK-05 to the region, Chief Operating Officer Jia Zhongxin said. More doses could be sent if needed, Jia said.