‘Ebola has zero effect on travel to NMI’

With memories of how SARS gravely affected the islands’ tourism industry in 2003 still raw in their minds, the Marianas Visitors Authority and the Inos administration are keeping a close tab on how the Ebola epidemic in Western Africa might affect the CNMI’s rebounding visitor arrival numbers.

MVA managing director Perry Tenorio said the Commonwealth tourism agency is doing its due diligence on the Ebola contagion.

“Any potential worldwide epidemic like Ebola is naturally something that the MVA watches extremely carefully since it can easily affect visitor arrivals to the CNMI. Reports from our airline and travel trade partners in Japan, China, Taiwan, Korean, and Russia indicate that it is already having an impact on travel from key Asian markets to West African nations, but that it is having zero effect on travel to Asia, the United States, or the CNMI. The MVA continues to monitor the situation on a daily basis together with our airline and travel trade partners throughout Asia,” he said in an email to Saipan Tribune.

In any event Ebola reaches Commonwealth shores, Tenorio said MVA’s role is to support the Inos administration’s crisis management plan.

“[These] include communicating on a constant ongoing basis with media, online channels, airline, and travel trade partners both in the CNMI as well as in our five key overseas markets so that lines of communication with potential tourists as well as tourists already in the CNMI are completely open,” he added.

Gov. Eloy S. Inos’ special adviser for Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Marvin Seman, said Ebola is indeed a global concern that may have ramifications on the islands’ tourism industry and the health of its residents.

“Our local HSEM is taking an active role on the preventive planning stages, along with counterparts at the White House. Our HSEM is seeking the federal government’s support on the possibility of expanding screening measures at international and national airports/seaports of departure with direct air/sea service to the CNMI (i.e. Japan, Korea, China, etc),” he said in an email forwarded by acting governor Jude U. Hofschneider’s acting press secretary, Ivan Blanco.

President Barrack Obama has already approved heightened screening measures at five U.S. airports: John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York; Washington Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.; Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, NJ; Chicago O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, IL; and Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, GA.

A 2003 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office said the tourism industry in the CNMI slowed as a result of the SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, outbreak in Asia. It affected source markets like China and to a lesser extent Japan and Korea.

While his office advises against news that may cause panic, Seman said that HSEM remains vigilant on this concern.

“Along with our public health officials and local partners, we are working diligently to ensure that the CNMI is at the forefront of preparedness. This is a sensitive and of great concern for us all but we must remain vigilant and when in doubt we should follow up with proper medical evaluation.”

In his e-newsletter sent to media last Friday, Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan said he has instructed his staff in Washington, D.C. to be present at briefings to ensure that federal preparations to respond to Ebola include the Commonwealth.

“It is very concerning that a disease that has proven so lethal in West Africa has now spread in isolated cases to North America and Europe. …We also contacted the Commonwealth Department of Public Health and learned that DPH [Division of Public Health] has been in daily contact with the Centers for Disease Control in Hawaii to be prepared.”

Sablan said it was also relayed to him that a space at the Commonwealth Health Center is being retrofitted as an isolation area, where a patient infected or showing symptoms could be treated.

“…DPH tells us that this week they conducted a ‘dry-run’ exercise to practice exactly what will be done if a patient comes in who may be infected.

He added that the White House has also published information, explaining the nature of the disease and the federal response.

“We have seen unexpected diseases before, such as SARS, and the world survived. But we have to take the matter seriously, stay well informed, and be prepared.”

Information from the White House stated that in March 2014, the World Health Organization reported an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the West African country of Guinea.

Since then, additional cases have since been reported in the countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as Nigeria and Senegal. The cases reported in Nigeria and Senegal are considered to be contained, with no further spread in these countries, but new cases continue to be reported in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. To date, there have been more than 9,200 reported Ebola cases in West Africa, with more than 4,500 deaths.

In September 2014, the CDC reported the first laboratory-confirmed case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S., in a person who had traveled from Liberia to Dallas, Texas. The patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, died on Oct. 8, 2014. Two health care workers at Texas Presbyterian Hospital who provided care for the patient have subsequently tested positive for Ebola, and have since been isolated and are receiving care.