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AN IRISH MAN was on the same flight as an American man who was diagnosed with the virus MERS, and is now undergoing tests to see if it was transferred to him.
The Irishman, Paddy Reilly, took the flight from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to Heathrow on 23 April. He told TheJournal.ie that he was sitting behind the American man on this flight.
The American man was flying from Saudi Arabia to Chicago, via Heathrow with British Airways, and was subsequently hospitalised with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in Indiana.
Reilly took an Aer Lingus flight from Heathrow to Ireland on 24 April, after his British Airways flight. He then spent two days here before his return to Saudi Arabia.
He has since been contacted by the HSE, who emailed him and then rang his Irish mobile and then Irish landline to tell him to get tested in case he is infected.
He has been advised not to socialise or travel for the next few days “just to be on the safe side”, he said.
Over 100 people have died from the MERS virus in Saudi Arabia.
Tests
Reilly has gone to the hospital in Saudi Arabia but said he has not been given a blood test yet. He is not showing any signs of the disease, but says there are three days left in the 14-day incubation period for MERS.
He said:
I have been to hospital here in Saudi Arabia and have had checks for symptoms but no blood tests which is concerning [...] not being local and Arabic speaking [I] can’t do much more.
He has emailed the HSE back asking should he insist on a blood test being done as he is showing no symptoms. “But with [it] still being in the 14 day incubation period I am a little concerned,” he said.
In the UK, Public Health England said that the risk of infection being passed to other passengers is “extremely low”, the Telegraph reported, but it had contacted passengers who were sitting near the man on the British Airways flight.
A spokesperson from the HSE said: “The Department of Public Health makes contact with any individual who is considered to have been at risk of exposure”.
MERS is a coronavirus similar to SARS. In December 2013, scientists found the small livestock barn in Qatar that was the location of a MERS outbreak that year.
It is believed the virus had spread from camels in the barn to humans.
A spokesperson from Aer Lingus declined to comment.
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Terrifying but sadly all too predictable as temperatures rise. You’d hope this would wake a few of the deniers up as it’s more local than some of the countries people chauvinistically dismiss. But alas these people would still be posting their copy and paste, Trump n dumpster science support, while the fire or flood is on their doorstep.
@SerotoninWars: you do realize they’ve had wildfires all over the globe for centuries?
@Niall English: You do realise that they have been far worse in recent years on account of climate change?
@Niall English: You do realise that ever more parched woodlands catch fire ever more easily, which spreads ever more quickly?
@JOHN O CONNELL: You mean when there were only a few millions of people?
And vast areas of the planet were covered in forests?
Imagine that!
@JOHN O CONNELL: Those fires were caused by a collision with fragments of a comet. What is your point?
@JOHN O CONNELL: Younger Dryas
It must have all grown back, from being burnt the last few years
@P. V. Aglue: You think houses and factories grow back?
What did the Greeks ever do for us?
@Padraig O’Brien: The birthplace of western thinking.
@Padraig O’Brien: Plato, Aristotle Euclid’s geometry aid the foundations for European rationality and scientific inquiry, and influenced the development of European science and mathematics. The epics of Homer and the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles deeply influenced European literature; their Greek humanism, that emphasized individual dignity, profoundly affected the development of European and American literary traditions. The music of Ancient Greece, particularly the theoretical frameworks of harmonics developed by the likes of Pythagoras, laid the foundations of Western music theory. And the political ideas of Ancient Greece, particularly the concept of democracy as practised in Athens, have had a lasting impact on European politics and systems of government.
@David Jordan: I frequently reread an old school text book on ancient Greek history by Bury.
(Am reading it again at the moment.)
Fascinating.
@David Jordan: “The music of Ancient Greece, particularly the theoretical frameworks of harmonics developed by the likes of Pythagoras, laid the foundations of Western music theory”.
And then (c)rap came along and that all went out the window.
Here in Bulgaria the fires started in June and keep going. There is several at any given time, and once a fire is put down, another one starts in a different place. There are constant appeals for volunteers to help the fire service, who are exhausted. Turkey sent fire trucks to help, and the Chesch republic sent two planes. What seems to be missing is coordinated EU level approach to this – Southern Europe is burning, and will continue burning every summer. Did someone ask Ursula what the plan is?
@ Thesaltyurchin and David Jordan
Are ye too young to have seen Monty Python?
have your say