I'd read this article earlier today Miss Stephanie, and it definitely got me concerned:
http://rt.com/news/193900-ebola-spread-inevitable-wto/
They're predicting a VERY HIGH likelihood that Ebola will reach France and the U.K. About the spread of the disease itself, I found this rather troubling:
The most dangerous contributor to the spread is the behavior of the virus. Its symptoms catch people unawares and normally follow a 21-day incubation period, during which there’s literally no visible sign the person has contracted Ebola.
This is further complicated by the EU’s free movement system – one can literally infect anyone they come into contact with in the space of a few days if they were to drive or fly from one country to another.
“It is quite unavoidable ... that such incidents will happen in the future because of the extensive travel both from Europe to the affected countries and the other way around,”
But the worst part to me is this:
WHO has so far placed no restrictions on flights to the worst-affected countries. While British Airways and Emirates are no longer flying there, Air France has only suspended flights to Sierra Leone – not Liberia, Guinea or Nigeria (though air crews were recently offered the option to refuse flying to those destinations).
Additionally, patients who have contacted the disease in West Africa have been repatriated for treatment – such as the two missionaries who died in September in Spain – one of whom infected a 44-year-old Spanish nurse who was diagnosed on Monday.
So then, we've got a 21 day incubation period for the virus with NO SYMPTOMS, there are still NO TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS to the most badly affected countries implemented by the World Health Organization, and the completely free and unrestricted movement system within the E.U. means that an infected person can come into the E.U. with no symptoms, travel anywhere they like throughout the E.U., coming into close contact with hundreds (if not thousands) of people, potentially exposing all of them to Ebola.
Travel restrictions need to be put in place, it's as simple as that--at least for a start.
Fighting the Good Fight...