A plane that left Paris yesterday and was headed to Detroit, in the United States, was forced by the US authorities to land in Montreal, Canada. The reason? It was discovered that among the passengers on board there was also a man from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there is an ongoing Ebola epidemic. It is not known whether the person had any symptoms, nor when he was last in the central African country. The United States said only that the man had been sent “aboard by mistake.”
In fact, therefore, the plane was hijacked. The person in question was dropped off in Canada and then the plane took the remaining passengers on board to Detroit.
Entry prohibited
The United States temporarily banned people without U.S. passports from entering the country who had visited the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Uganda in the past three weeks. US citizens and people with permanent residence permits can return, but only from Dulles International Airport in Virginia, near Washington, where they undergo necessary checks.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined the Ebola epidemic caused by the Bundibugyo variant as a health emergency of international concern, although the risk of contagion outside Central Africa remains low. “It could be like the most serious Ebola epidemic ever recorded, the one that broke out in 2014, if not worse,” Dr. Renata Gili, a hygiene and public health specialist who deals with the control of infectious diseases at the Turin ASL, told Today. Here is the interview with the expert.