LIHUE — With measles reported in at least five U.S. airports this holiday season, the outbreak in Samoa and more direct flights from the mainland to Lihue Airport, staff have to stay vigilant to keep disease from spreading.
That means keeping everyone in the visitor industry refreshed on how to identify and respond to communicable illnesses in passengers, something that Oahu physician James Ireland coordinates for the Hawaii Department of Transportation.
Ireland has been working with HDOT since 2000. He and his team meet every three months to consider the communicable diseases in circulation and make sure that airport personnel across the islands are up to speed on response and identification protocol.
“There’s always a ‘disease of the month’ that’s of concern,” Ireland said Thursday. “Lately, with the outbreak in Samoa and the reports from the mainland airports, it’s measles.”
The Samoa measles outbreak has been traced back to July 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and in November, Ireland’s team sent out reminders to airport personnel, including crash fire rescue staff, to be on a heightened awareness for measles.
In early December, a medical team from Hawaii flew to Samoa to help combat the contagious virus and to help with vaccinations. That’s about the same time airports in Chicago, Texas and Virginia began reporting travelers with measles.
Now, with increased media exposure of the spreading of measles, Ireland says protocols in place will help keep everyone up to date on response.
“Flight crews are trained to recognize the signs of ill passengers, and they know what to look for on all the neighbor islands,” Ireland said. “The aircrafts can radio ahead and airport fire rescue are on standby.”
This year, there were four reported cases of travel-related measles in Hawaii, including three visitors and one resident. In 2018, there were no reported cases of measles in the state. An advisory was sent to physicians in November, and healthcare providers are reminded to be vigilant, he said.
Measles cases are rising around the world, according to the Associated Press. The United States in 2019 reported its highest number of cases in 25 years, and last year protracted outbreaks caused four European countries where measles had been eliminated to lose that status, the World Health Organization reported this month.
The partnership between HDOT, the state Department of Health and CDC matured about 10 years ago because avian flu was going around, and the relationship has been “pretty robust” since then, according to Ireland.
“It all started with (figuring out) how to screen passengers for avian flu and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) when that was a concern,” Ireland said. “Now we have procedures ready for everything, so to speak.”
Ireland said the current measles outbreak isn’t quite as concerning compared to other communicable diseases that have been in circulation, like SARS, ebola or avian flu, because many in Hawaii are already vaccinated for measles.
“Hawaii has high vaccination rates with pockets of people in the counties that don’t vaccinate,” Ireland said. “With these high vaccination rates, if measles were to be introduced, most people wouldn’t get it.”
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Jessica Else, environment reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or jelse@thegardenisland.com.
“All crews know what to look for…”
Does this mean that “…what to look for…” is looked for AFTER takeoff from another city, which in Hawaii’s case is a flight lasting 5 to 12 hours or longer, wherein nearby passengers, if not the whole cabin of passengers, are left to sit in the proximity with someone with a serious contagious disease?
Having Fire Crews ready upon landing is so “medical” as in after the fact Disease Care, while prevention should be the emphasis criteria for public transportation and safety to fellow passengers and crews.
Wouldn’t it be more sensible and hopefully more PREVENTIVE if airport personnel, like check in counter people and security were trained in observing the signs of people who may be ill and then having these airport people politely question a potentially sick person before that sick person enters the aircraft?
And then as a secondary precaution have flight crews perform further visual examination of all passengers and questioning of a suspected ill person before takeoff for possible removal from the flight.
This and other measures to PREVENT the spread of disease, and in the case of Samoa, may have prevented sickness to many and the tragic loss of life that occurred to many children.
After the fact concern, evaluation, and action is more akin to Heroic effort, while early screening is certainly more reasonable and sensible.
Reminder signs at airports, after all airport advertisement signs are routine these days, but reminders signs that even other travelers waiting for flights may notice an ill person sitting amongst them, and could inform trained security personnel and upon security notification could politely question a suspected ill person to prevent their entering an enclosed aircraft cabin for extended hours, even if it was only interisland.
Who would want to sit in the vicinity of a sick person for many hours, especially if it was measles, mumps, chicken pox, avian flu, regular flu, even an obvious bad cold, or whooping cough, cholera, or Ebola…?
If you are sick, you are not qualified to be a passenger, and you should be precluded, that is not allowed on board aircraft or even a passenger ocean liner, if there is real concern for the health of the other passengers.
An ounce of Prevention is more valuable than a pound of Cure…that adage is as old as the hills and should be practiced by the travel and transportation industry for the safety of all, including the crew.
For the sick person who just has to make that flight vs. cancelling for safety reasons should be the protocol to follow, but that is often ignored, even flight cancellations by sick people are penalized by loss of ticket.
It’s a difficult situation made worse by a contagious passenger with a communicable disease on board.
In some foreign airports arriving passengers are screened with infrared cameras looking for feverish passengers, again this is non invasive and could be used prior to departure for all passengers safety.
If whole body scanners are routinely used on most passengers why not infrared cameras observations that no one would have a reason to opt out of. After all one common sign of illness is fever which can show up on a highly sensitive for heat infrared camera.
The right Infrared cameras are a highly reliable PREVENTION device to prevent ill passengers on aircraft and safety for all inflight. Their cost along with a television monitor to see the image is incredible low cost compared to the price of Disease spreading amongst passengers. Even savvy Airline Companies could employ this measure to prevent the spread of disease on their aircraft, really incubation tubes in the sky.