NIGERIA faces an increased risk of infection from ebola as passengers flying to Sierra Leone and Liberia will have to pass through Lagos from henceforth after British Airways suspended all flights to Freetown and Monrovia until next year.
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have been the epicentres of the dreaded ebola virus disease (EVD) that has raged across West Africa in recent months, killing over 1,400 people. In a bid to contain the virus, many airlines have cancelled flights to the three countries and many of their neighbours have closed their borders.
British Airways is one of West Africa's busiest airlines and flies every week to both Liberia and Sierra Leone from London. To contain the spread of EVD, British Airways has decided to cancel its flights to both countries and divert all trips to Lagos and Accra, urging passengers to get connecting flights from Nigeria and Ghana.
This will mean passengers wishing to fly into and out of both Sierra Leone and Liberia will have to transit through Nigeria, increasing the risk of infection. EVD was brought to Nigeria on July 14 when Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer flew to Calabar for a regional summit and infected all those her came in contact with.
A British Airways spokesman said: “British Airways has suspended flights to and from Liberia and Sierra Leone until 31 December 2014 due to concerns about the public health situation in both countries. The safety of our customers, crew and ground teams is always our top priority and we will keep the routes under constant review in the coming weeks.”
Originally, the airline had previously suspended its flights until September but has now decided to extend this until the end of the year. Normally, the carrier flies four times a week between London’s Heathrow airport and Freetown in Sierra Leone, with a connection to the Liberian capital Monrovia.
British Airways said customers with tickets booked on those routes could get a refund, rebook for a later date, or rearrange to fly out of Ghana, Kenya or Nigeria. At the moment, getting out of these countries is extremely difficult as the few flights that remain are over-booked, causing severe delays.
Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) has withdrawn its staff from the ebola laboratory at Kailahun in eastern Sierra Leone after one of its medical workers there was infected. WHO had sent nearly 400 people comprising its own staff and those from partner organisations to fight the outbreak across West Africa.
“It’s a temporary measure to take care of the welfare of our remaining workers. After our assessment, they will return,” WHO spokesperson, Christy Feig said.http://www.nigerianwatch.com/news/5178-nigeria-faces-increased-ebola-risk-as-ba-diverts-freetown-and-monrovia-flight-to-lagos

Things are getting uglier by the day. May God deliver us from Ebola!

God forbid,, they need to SHOOT THOSE PILOTS ASAP

Then Nigeria should cancel flights from Liberia and Sierra Leone(Should've done this a long time ago). It's as simple as ABC. British Airways can not be making money at our expense.