Tourism is the main revenue earner of Barbados, but it also brings risks that small island nations must constantly confront. In the wake of Covid 19 and with global health threats like EBOLA resurfacing, the vulnerability of Barbadians is an always on reality. We are a country of fewer than 300,000 people, we do not have the margin for error of larger countries. One outbreak would overwhelm our struggling healthcare system and collapse the economy. The pandemic gave us a glimpse into this possibility.
The recent decision to establish a direct air route with Air Peace underscores the dilemma. Tourism is essential for economic growth, opening non traditional trade links with Africa and deepening relationships with our ancestral past. Barbados MUST balance the need for foreign exchange and connecting with our past with the responsibility to safeguard its people. It is a delicate balance, and the concern of a lowly blogmaster – is whether our government is managing the trade off with the level of rigour a small nation requires. The truth is, successive government have demonstrated a level of incompetence managing ZRs and Minibuses which does not inspire confidence.
The issue is not whether we should welcome visitors. It is whether we are doing enough to protect BARBADIANS given the 24 hour threat from outside.
See relevant article, thanks to Bajan in UK:
Britain’s hospitals have been placed on high alert as the NHS is ordered to prepare for a potential Ebola outbreak. Frontline medical staff, including GPs and A&E workers, have been told to brace themselves for potential cases reaching the UK following a rapidly growing surge of the deadly virus in Africa.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued urgent updated guidance warning health chiefs to ensure they can instantly spot and isolate any suspected patients.
While officials insist the risk to the British public remains low, they admit that imported cases are a real possibility. Ebola is a viral haemorrhagic fever that triggers total organ failure and severe internal bleeding.
Britain’s hospitals have been placed on high alert as the NHS is ordered to prepare for a potential Ebola outbreak. Frontline medical staff, including GPs and A&E workers, have been told to brace themselves for potential cases reaching the UK following a rapidly growing surge of the deadly virus in Africa.The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued urgent updated guidance warning health chiefs to ensure they can instantly spot and isolate any suspected patients.
While officials insist the risk to the British public remains low, they admit that imported cases are a real possibility. Ebola is a viral haemorrhagic fever that triggers total organ failure and severe internal bleeding.
Doctors are being told to instantly suspect Ebola in any incredibly sick patient with a fever who has returned from the hot zones within the last 21 days.
Under the strict new rules suspected victims must be treated with maximum urgency, with patients locked down immediately in a single isolation room.
Medics must also use high-level protective gear during assessments and cases must be escalated at speed to specialist health teams, as Ebola is a notifiable disease by law.
The panic comes as a rare mutation called the Bundibugyo strain tears through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighbouring Uganda.
The World Health Organisation declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern back in May. The latest figures reveal hundreds of suspected cases and dozens of confirmed deaths – and the body count is rising daily.
Health bosses fear the true scale of the nightmare could be much worse, with heaps of suspected cases still being probed.
The strain has a terrifying death rate of between 30 and 50 per cent, making it one of the most lethal diseases on the planet.
In addition, there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment for this exact strain, meaning stopping it relies entirely on quick isolation and strict hygiene.
The bug is not airborne and only spreads through direct contact with infected bodily fluids like blood, vomit, and spit. Victims can only pass it on once they start showing symptoms.
In response to the threat, urgent warning posters have been slapped up across major UK airports and train stations, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, St Pancras and Birmingham.
The UKHSA posters target travellers returning from Uganda, which has direct weekly flights to Gatwick, and the DRC, where passengers fly into Britain via connecting flights through France and Belgium.
Despite the warning, the UKHSA stresses that the NHS has elite high-containment units ready to handle any imported cases safely. Doctors are also being reminded to rule out more common tropical diseases like malaria first.
Dr Derek Sloan, an infectious diseases expert at St Andrews University, warned that the UK cannot ignore the threat.
He said: “This outbreak, along with the recent Hantavirus cases on a cruise ship and meningococcal meningitis infections in the UK, shows how important it is that we stay vigilant and use effective public health tools to protect our populations.
“Infectious disease outbreaks such as these in our interconnected world cannot be dismissed as someone else’s problem. Incredible institutions across Britain act as our first line of defence in an unpredictable world when the frequency of infectious disease outbreaks is increasing.”
Compliments: www.msn.com
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