{"id":458743,"date":"2026-05-20T17:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/458743\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T17:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:55:11","slug":"asian-countries-tighten-borders-as-health-authorities-work-to-contain-ebola-outbreak-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/458743\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian countries tighten borders as health authorities work to contain Ebola outbreak \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Governments across Asia are tightening border screening and quarantine preparedness as health authorities work to contain a growing Ebola <\/a>outbreak in central Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Several governments have expanded screening and reporting requirements for travellers arriving from affected countries, though officials say the likelihood of local transmission remains low and no cases have been publicly confirmed in Asia.<\/p>\n

In Hong Kong, a Lantau Island isolation facility used for quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic has been inspected to ensure it is ready for use should a laboratory-confirmed case of Ebola be detected.<\/p>\n

As of May 18th, people arriving in mainland China from the affected regions who have been in contact with a known Ebola case, or are showing symptoms like a fever or nausea, will need to declare themselves to authorities.<\/p>\n

The African continent has been one of the world\u2019s fastest-growing regions for tourism in recent years. About 680,000 Chinese travellers went to Africa in 2025, according to Subramania Bhatt, head of travel analytics firm China Trading Desk.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0WHO declares global health emergency over Ebola outbreakOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The group estimates that number could rise to 820,000 to 840,000 this year, with much of the flow concentrated in countries such as Egypt, Kenya and South Africa.<\/p>\n

\"EarlyEarly surveillance and testing failed to identify the rare species of Ebola responsible for the current outbreak <\/p>\n

Africa also hosted more than 90,000 Chinese workers as of 2024, many employed on construction contracts under the so-called Belt and Road Initiative. <\/p>\n

The Ebola outbreak spreading in central Africa probably started months ago, and it will take several months before a shot is ready for human tests, World Health Organisation<\/a> (WHO) officials said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The rare Bundibugyo strain that is fuelling the contagion has no approved treatment and no vaccine. The most promising experimental shot will take six to nine months to be available for clinical trials, the agency said at a meeting on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The virus is believed to have circulated for \u201ca couple months\u201d before being identified on May 15th, according to Ana\u00efs Legand, the WHO\u2019s technical lead for viral haemorrhagic fevers, which has complicated efforts to contain the outbreak.<\/p>\n

\"WHOWHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Photograph: Salvatore Di Nolfi\/AP <\/p>\n

The WHO has tallied almost 600 suspected cases and 139 deaths linked to the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect the numbers to keep increasing given the amount of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected,\u201d the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. <\/p>\n

Tedros has warned of the danger posed by the \u201cscale and speed\u201d of the outbreak so far.<\/p>\n

The actual number of cases may exceed 800, according to an analysis by researchers at Imperial College London and the WHO and could be as high as 1,000 in a worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n

A WHO technical advisory group met on Tuesday to discuss which potential vaccines should be prioritised. Two vaccines for Ebola were developed during a years-long outbreak in West Africa a decade ago, one from Merck & Co, and another from Johnson & Johnson. However, both were designed to block the more common and deadly Zaire strain of the virus.<\/p>\n

\"StaffStaff in protective gowns distribute facemaskes in Goma, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photograph: EPA <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re back to where we were in 2014 to 2016 with no specific treatment and no specific vaccine,\u201d said Joanne Liu, a professor at McGill University\u2019s School of Population and Global Health. Liu, former president of MSF, helped lead the response to the West Africa outbreak.<\/p>\n

With so little in health authorities\u2019 toolboxes, it might make sense to offer one of the existing vaccines to health workers, she said. There is some evidence from a study in monkeys that the Merck shot, while not designed around the Bundibugyo strain, might provide at least some degree of protection, she said.<\/p>\n

– Bloomberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Governments across Asia are tightening border screening and quarantine preparedness as health authorities work to contain a growing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[255,114,196728,103,240,61,1665,60,31614],"class_list":["post-458743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-africa","tag-china","tag-ebola-disease","tag-health","tag-hong-kong","tag-ie","tag-indonesia","tag-ireland","tag-world-health-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}