Download Ebola prevention advice for Unite members

Ebola prevention advice for Unite members
Under the new UK screening measures, passengers flying into Britain from areas affected
with Ebola virus (Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia), will be identified by Border Force
officers upon arrival. Most of them have already also been screened for symptoms before
leaving their country. Nurses and consultants from Public Health England will then carry out
the actual screening. Enhanced screening for Ebola is starting at Heathrow, then rolling out
to Gatwick and St Pancras (Eurostar). Passengers will have their temperature taken and
complete a questionnaire asking about their current health, recent travel history and
whether they might be at potential risk through contact with Ebola patients. Based on the
information provided and their temperature, passengers will either be given advice and
allowed to continue their journey, or undergo a clinical assessment by PHE staff and if
necessary be transferred to hospital for further tests.
All frontline Border Force, airport and Eurostar staff must follow exactly any procedures
specified by Public Health England. In particular, you must ensure scrupulous hygiene such
as thorough washing of hands with soap before and after eating, not smoking or eating on
duty, not shaking hands or unnecessarily touching passengers, and wearing gloves if
advised. Alcohol hand gels are in addition to hand washing, and not a substitute. All cuts or
scratches on hands and forearms must be covered with a plaster, and you should seek
advice from PHE staff.
You should not be involved with direct examination of members of the public including
taking temperatures, but you may be involved with administering a questionnaire. When
helping with babies or unaccompanied children you must not touch any clothing, towels,
food, baby bottles or nappies belonging to travellers from affected areas. Cabin crew are
sometimes asked to heat up babies’ bottles, but babies come to no harm from drinking cool
milk. You should not administer any first aid (not even apply a plaster) or clean up any spilt
body fluids such as blood, vomit or tears. These must be treated as contaminated waste and
PHE should be enforcing a strict disposal policy. You should not touch any medical
equipment used by a passenger including needles and syringes. If a traveller coughs or
sneezes on a member of staff, the risk is from the direct contact with their sputum, not from
inhaling the virus, as it is not airborne. Coughing and sneezing is not a symptom of Ebola.
Gloves only provide protection if they are used as a barrier. If you touch something infected
with your gloved hand and then touch yourself, you are not protected. This is easily done by
for example, taking off your glasses to clean them, mopping your brow when hot, scratching
an itch, blowing your nose, going to the toilet, eating and drinking. You can test yourself
with the school lesson trick of putting a bit of glitter on your hands (to represent viruses)
and seeing where it ends up. If advised to wear gloves, they need to be changed frequently,
and there is a special way to do this, which you need to be trained to do. If you think you
might have run a risk, then seek advice from PHE staff.
You need to remain vigilant at all times, and plan your work carefully. The passengers might
be scared of the security and tired after their flight, so remaining calm and professional will
help the situation. You will be able to hand things to them: a glass of water, meals, etc; the
problem arises when they want to hand things back to you.
www.unitetheunion.org
Aircraft cleaners already have a schedule of cleaning to do, but during this emergency this
will be enhanced. It is important that you are trained carefully to carry out additional
procedures including disposal of products in Biohazard bags; however, do not only do what
you are told, ask questions and try to understand what your role is in preventing the spread
of this virus. You will need to have extra time allocated, and seek support from your Unite
reps if this is a problem.
One of your concerns will be the possibility that you might inadvertently take the virus back
to your family. However, viruses need to have quite specific living conditions and they soon
die outside of the body of their host. The longest it is likely to survive is a few days, if left in
a pool of bodily fluid in a cool, damp place. Infection occurs through direct contact with
body fluids, so do not touch door handles, toilet flushes, telephones, or anything which a
passenger could have infected. Ask PHE to show you how to overcome these daily
problematic activities. People remain infectious as long as their body fluids, including
semen, mucus, saliva and breast milk, contain the virus. Men who have recovered from the
disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to seven weeks after recovery
from illness (some experts think three months). Condoms are a barrier, but it is easy to see
the possible risk of sexual intercourse.
The incubation period, that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of
symptoms is 2 to 21 days. Humans are not infectious until they develop symptoms. First
symptoms are the sudden onset of fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat,
but these are also symptoms of many other diseases so you cannot jump to conclusions.
If however, you have any of these symptoms over the next few weeks, or nausea, vomiting
or diarrhoea which may be blood stained, then ring the emergency number 111 first, and
tell them that you have been in contact with travellers from West Africa where there is
endemic Ebola. Do not go directly to A&E or to your GP, as you might infect others.
Cabin crew identifying a sick passenger with suspicion of infectious disease on board, as well
as ground staff receiving the passenger at the destination, would follow the International Air
Transport Association guidelines for suspected communicable diseases (PDF, 37kb). These
by the way, refer to a ‘tap’ by the American word ‘faucet’.
References:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/13/how-avoid-catching-ebola
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ebola-virus/pages/ebola-virus.aspx
www.unitetheunion.org