A woman who has just returned to Canada from Sierra Leone says there were only minimal ebola screening measures taken at the airport in Freetown.
The organization Save the Children says that 5 more people are being infected every hour in Sierra Leone, with a similar situation in neighbouring Liberia. It says the rate is likely to double in the country before the end of the month.
Hawa Dumbuya, 28 was in Freetown with her infant daughter, where she was completing a Master’s thesis.
The two were originally set to fly home to Yellowknife to their family in the Northwest Territories on British Airways earlier this month but the first announced delays in flights to and from the ebola stricken country, and then announced cancellation of all its flights to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
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She managed to get out this week, but said all the health officials did at the airport was just take people’s temperature, adding, “just taking temperatures, that’ pretty much all they do”.
She said, “Somebody could have other symptoms as well that they don’t know about. I think that’s why it’s so easy to spread”.
Canadian border agents are advised to ask travelers if they feel ill, and if so, they are referred to quarantine officers for assessment.
Once a person has been exposed, it takes up to 21 days for symptoms to show, and for the person to become infectious.
The World Health Organization estimates about 3,000 people have died so far in West Africa from the disease.
However Save the Children suspects the numbers of cases are likely to be “massively” under-reported, as “untold numbers of children are dying anonymously at home or in the streets”.
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