14 DAY TRIAL // This Wednesday, a US Airways flight was boarded by health officials in protective suits after a passenger conjured up all his might (and sheer idiocy, some might want to add) and shouted at the top of his lungs that he had Ebola.
The plane was flying from the city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania to Punta Cana the Dominican Republic, and the other passengers aboard it say that, before the self-diagnosis, the man kept coughing and sneezing.
Since these symptoms are among the first that people infected with the deadly Ebola virus display, healthcare officials decided not to take any chances, and kept all passengers and crew members onboard for two hours.
It was all just an act
As mentioned, the US Airways flight was on its way from Pennsylvania to the Dominican Republic at the time when this man, whose identity has not yet been shared with the public, told passengers and crew that he had Ebola.
Almost immediately after the plane landed in the Dominican Republic's Punta Cana municipality, the 255 people aboard it were asked to remain seated. Healthcare workers boarded it and escorted the self-proclaimed Ebola patient off the aircraft, The Telegraph informs.
The man was taken to a local medical center, where doctors examined and interviewed him. It was thus revealed that his announcement that he was suffering with Ebola was intended as a joke. The man had never been to Africa, and was only displaying flu symptoms.
“The closest he came to the continent was in 2012 when he visited Europe. It was a false alarm set off by the passenger who is slightly unbalanced. He did it for attention,” said Alberto Smith, the director of operations at the Punta Cana International Airport.
It is unclear what Alberto Smith meant when he suggested that this man that claimed to have Ebola was not exactly well mental health-wise. What's more, whether or not the supposed Ebola-patients announcement will land him in trouble with the law remains a mystery.
Nobody got the joke
Not at all surprisingly, neither crew members nor the 255 passengers that got to spend two hours of a place because of this man got his little joke. On the contrary, it appears that, while health officials were escorting him off the plane, several people booed him and a stewardess called him an idiot.
According to figures released by the World Health Organization, the ongoing Ebola epidemic in West Africa has until now killed about 3,800 people. Despite efforts to contain the spread of this virus, the number of people infected with Ebola continues to rise.
