Possible Ebola patient disappears in Bangkok

[FangFerang]

What a joke. Thailand has a zero track record on disease.

[webfact]

Police and health officials hunting man from Sierra Leone amid Ebola fears
POUNGCHOMPOO PRASERT,
CHATCHAWAL SOPAPAN,
JESSADA JANTARAK
THE NATION



BANGKOK:-- THE PUBLIC Health Ministry has sought police help to try to locate a Sierra Leone man who failed to report for a mandatory 21-day observation to see if he develops Ebola symptoms.

Samuel Sesay, 31, was healthy when he flew into Thailand about two weeks ago. However, the inability of health officials to contact or find him at the hotel he said he would be staying has led to concerns.

In a bid to prevent an outbreak of the deadly disease in Thailand, the ministry requires all people travelling from Ebola-affected countries, including Sierra Leone, to provide details on their health condition to the ministry every day for 21 days.

"There have been eight people on our observation list. Of them, only this man has lost touch with us," the ministry's deputy permanent secretary Wachira Pengjuntr said yesterday.

Officials from the Bureau of General Communicable Diseases have lodged a complaint at Yannawa Police Station and asked for help in locating Sesay.

"At the time he entered Thailand, he didn't have any fever or any other symptoms," Wachira said.

"He's not a suspected Ebola patient. But we require him to report his health conditions to us in line with a strategy to prevent any outbreak of Ebola."

During the past week, it was reported that there were about 1,000 new Ebola infections in Sierra Leone.

Wachira said the Ebola surveillance was designed to benefit everyone. If an Ebola infection was detected early, there was a better chance of recovery.

"If convicted of violating our surveillance requirement, offenders face a maximum fine of Bt2,000," he said.

He said the incubation period of Ebola was 21 days, and so was the surveillance period.

As of press time, police and health officials were searching for Sesay in various areas.

Immigration officials said there was no record of him having left Thailand.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Police-and-health-officials-hunting-man-from-Sierr-30248486.html


-- The Nation 2014-11-25

[Longtooth]

You couldn't make it up.

Only if you were writing the script for a cartoon. In a novel the reader could not suspend disbelief. The reader would just say to themselves, "Yeah, right" and set the book down for good. The reason would be that you would "see where this is going." Well, do you? Ebola in Bangkok. Where can you buy 400 miles of concertina wire in a hurry?

[BritTim]

Are the Thai officials that escorted the person in quarantine yet ?

Sharing a taxi with a possible Ebola infected person would be inviting death IMHO

One cough in an enclosed space ..

With this sort of shambolic response, it's only a matter of time before we have a full-on epidemic in Thailand.

And how are they going to respond ?

By some more amulets of course !

Only concerned with the official escort? How about the poor taxi driver?

ps. Ebola is not contagious until the symptoms like fever are showing. Even then the first days are not yet hazardous until a full onset with all nasty effects.

My reading suggests that people may be very mildly infectious immediately before symptoms occur, but only a risk then (not much) in the event of close physical contact. Symptoms begin to appear while the viral load is still quite low. As the disease progresses, and the viral load increases, the risk of infecting others steadily rises. The most danger for infection comes from terminal patients and the corpses of those who have died. At that stage, extreme care is needed. The virus can remain viable in corpses, and in bodily fluids on surfaces for long periods. There are still some unknowns, and precautions are prudent, but panicked responses are not appropriate. The risk of the general population contracting Ebola from a foreign visitor to Thailand is probably much less than the risk of being struck by lightning. Medical personnel could face greater risk.

[4u2mad]

Never a dull moment in this place..

Certainly a few DUMB ones though.......

[smedly]

when they find him I say hit him with the maximum fine - that'll teach him

[SOTIRIOS]

......seems like only yesterday.........'well-prepared'...........'plan in place'.......'no danger'............'Thailand is safe'......

[johnh869]

Soon as this person tries to leave the airport or is caught put him in medical confinement and then in the slammer!

Edited November 25, 2014 by johnh869

[maidee]

thailand has found a cure, right

oh i forgot, it was experimental & theorethical

maybe they can catch him and tried it on him

so why is immigration still letting people from ebola countries into the country ?

[webfact]

Tourist from Sierra Leone is wanted by police for health testing



BANGKOK: -- Police are now looking for a 31-year-old man from Sierra Leone after he failed to report to public heath officials for daily health checkups.

The man was identified as Ceesay Samuel.

He is on the list of people suspected of carrying the Ebola virus and is required to report for daily checkups.

But he failed to report and went missing from his hotel room.

Pol Col Piyawat Boonyuen-anon, acting chief of Phaya Thai police station, said he has ordered the hunt for Mr Samuel after he missed the appointment with health officers on November 16.

The police also sought cooperation from the public to avoid direct contact with him if they meet him.

The photo of the man was distributed to the media to help publicise him suggestion that anyone who meets the man should avoid direct contact with him, and immediately inform either public health officials or police or call the Department of Disease Control at 0-2590-3000.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/tourist-sierra-leone-wanted-police-health-testing


-- Thai PBS 2014-11-25

[Bluespunk]

"Samuel Sesay, 31, was healthy when he flew into Thailand about two weeks ago."

So he has no symptoms.

Now there's a thing.

Edited November 25, 2014 by Bluespunk

[bunuel]

Ebola can be detected by a blood sample to detect the Ebola virus is in the suspected person's blood.

If there is no Ebola virus, then the person is probably clear of Ebola.

It would be "nice" to know if he ever had such a test, and if a virus was detected.

If so, and the virus was not found, he probably was never infected.

If he is infected he can not spread the disease unless he starts to show symptoms.

Ebola is NOT spread like flu, it requires contact with bodily fluids from s person showing the symptoms of an affected person.

If he was affected, and he develops symptoms, they will probably show in the next week.

For his own safety, he needs to contact a doctor as soon as possible.

If he is infected, and starts to show symptoms, he chance of surviving the disease without prompt medical treatment is very slim.

Less than 50%., even with prompt medical treatment.

Hopefully, he may be reading this?

Very helpful information, but might add that Ebola test is not infallible - recent doctor from Sierra Leone did NOT test positive, even though he had some symptoms, and family was forced to halt premature celebration. MSF doctor in charge said these false negatives were " not uncommon" .

Bottom line is that anyone who has been directly exposed should go into 21 day quarantine without further ado. That is current policy of most African countries for dealing with this deadly virus for which there is no cure to date! Also , largest American states like NY, NJ, California, Illinois and Florida all have 21 day quarantne policy - unlike US CDC, which does not.

Better safe than sorry - there is much we do not know about this virus!

[masuk]

......seems like only yesterday.........'well-prepared'...........'plan in place'.......'no danger'............'Thailand is safe'......

You forgot "Thailand has found a cure or vaccination for Ebola".

[simondan]

when they find him I say hit him with the maximum fine - that'll teach him

Yeah, the full 2000 THB fine!

Thats really making an example of him!

Edited November 25, 2014 by simondan

[abitmiffed]

when they find him I say hit him with the maximum fine - that'll teach him

Yeh 2k baht not so bad for infecting the country but hey i thought the Thais have the cure already?

[Jonmarleesco]

'"If convicted of violating our surveillance requirement, offenders face a maximum fine of Bt2,000 ..."' Hardly a deterrent. Safer, by far, to bar visitors from high-risk countries. But that would really bugger up the TAT's high hopes.

[Sheryl]

Officials from the Bureau of General Communicable Diseases have lodged a complaint at Yannawa Police Station and asked for help in locating Sesay.

"At the time he entered Thailand, he didn't have any fever or any other symptoms," Wachira said.

"He's not a suspected Ebola patient. But we require him to report his health conditions to us in line with a strategy to prevent any outbreak of Ebola."....

Not symptoms. No indication he was even exposed to the virus, other than that he came fro ma country where there are cases. Not every one in Sierra Leone has been exposed to the virus, not by a long shot.

In such a situation standard public health recommendations do not call for quarantine. Thai authorities did nothing wrong in letting him go with request to check in regularly. That he failed to do so probably has to do with the level of unnecessary hysteria being propagated over this.

Highly unlikely he is holed up somewhere with Ebola. The disease is pretty spectacular, with copious vomiting and diarrhea and people prostrate and weak. Not something you can hide or that a hotel or guesthouse would fail to notice. And until things reach that stage people are not infectious. There has not been a single documented case of anyone getting the disease from contact with an infected person in the pre-clinical phase of the disease. You probably could via a blood transfusion or shared needles but that's about what it would take.

Where the authorities have gone wrong IMO is in issuing all these notices in the press which are only likely to generate unnecessary panic and discrimination towards all Africans, possibly even all blacks as many Thais assume one equals the other. Would have made good sense to put all hospitals, clinics and doctors on alert in case he shows up sick, but no need for the rest of this circus.

[gemini81]

Must have sent him to the local hospital where genius doctors and researchers found that breakthrough cure they were rantin' & ravin' about.

Edited November 25, 2014 by gemini81

[BKKSnowBird]

I just don't get it. Like i said before; it should be easy to find him.

I thought all guest houeses or hotels are required to report him within 24 hours?

[bkkjames]

They found him at the airport trying to leave today....closed....

[ldnguy]

Another good example of why countries like Thailand and the U.S. ought to be DENYING visas and visa-exempt entries to people from the ebola hot zone countries until/unless they've passed quarantine.

As has been said here before, authorities simply cannot rely on suspected Ebola carriers from those countries to comply with voluntary regulation.

Why was he released from quarantine if he had symptoms?

This just makes no sense at all.

I think something has got lost in translation. They probably want to keep an eye on him because of where he's from. Probably near zero chance he has Ebola. More like the press making a story out nothing. tens of thousands are tracked like this all over the world. It means nothing.