Ebola Virus Precautions � Update

The US Coast Guard has released a reminder regarding Ebola precautions. All vessels/owners are reminded that any sickness must be reported. In its Marine Safety Information Bulletin No.17-14 dated 17 October 2014, the USCG advises that an Ebola Crisis Action Team has been set up at its Headquarters and is conducting a comprehensive review of USCG policy to provide clarifying guidance. Additional guidance will be issued as necessary. Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to evolve and updates will be available at: www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola. Any suspected Ebola case in the maritime environment will be considered an incident of significant national interest, so timely notification to the CDC and the USCG is vital to help ensure appropriate coordination between the CDC, USCG, and other federal, state, and local agencies. Symptoms of Ebola include fever, severe headache, muscle pain, weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal (stomach) pain and unexplained hemorrhage (bleeding or bruising). Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2-21 days after exposure, but the average is 8-10 days. Individuals could be infected if they came into contact with blood or body fluids from someone who is infected with or have died from Ebola, sick wildlife, or meat products from an infected animal. If you were in an area with an Ebola outbreak, you should follow the CDC Guidance following any potential exposure. Vessel/facility owner/operators, and local stakeholders, should be aware of the following: - Owners, agents, masters, operators or persons in charge of a vessel should immediately notify the nearest Coast Guard Sector whenever there is a hazardous condition aboard the vessel. An ill person on board, especially one displaying the symptoms listed above, may constitute a hazardous condition and should be reported. Facilities that encounter similar conditions are strongly recommended to report this to the Coast Guard. - Vessel representatives are also reminded that they must report sick or deceased crew or passengers within the last 15 days to the CDC. Regional CDC quarantine station points of contact can be found at: www.cdc.gov/quarantine/QuarantineStationContactListFull.html, and the required forms at: www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cargo/reporting-deaths-illness/index.html, and www.cdc.gov/quarantine/maritime/federal-regulations-reporting-illness-death-ships-destined-united-states.html. - The Coast Guard will continue to review all Notice of Arrivals to determine if a vessel has visited a country impacted by an Ebola virus outbreak within its last five ports of call. - For vessels that have visited a country impacted by Ebola within its last five ports of call, the owner or operator is highly encouraged to determine how long each individual crew member has been on that vessel. This should include whether or not the crew member visited countries currently impacted by Ebola within the 21 days prior to embarkation. While this information is not required under current Coast Guard regulations, having reliable data available to document this history will help reassure the public and port stakeholders and facilitate cargo operations. - It is recommended that local industry stakeholders, in collaboration with their Coast Guard Captain of the Port: * Continue to review and be familiar with section 5310 Procedures for Vessel Quarantine and Isolation, and Section 5320 Procedures for security segregation of Vessels in their Area Maritime Security Plan. * Continue to review and be familiar with their Marine Transportation System Recovery Plan. * Consider conducting a table top exercise to plan and address items such as an evaluation of how to handle a vessel arrival with a suspected Ebola case (allow to berth?, keep it at anchorage?, etc.), what steps need to be considered if a medical evacuation is needed, and, possibly how a ship would be decontaminated in order to commence cargo transfers? The CDC has issued travel warnings and personnel traveling to affected countries are urged to review travel alerts issued by the CDC prior to their arrival. Travel alert information can be found at: wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices. Questions regarding this should be forwarded to the Coast Guard Office of Commercial Vessel Compliance, Foreign and Offshore Vessel Division (CG-CVC-2) at 202-372-1218 or by email at [email protected]. Port and Facility questions regarding this MSIB should be forwarded to the Office of Port and Facility Compliance (CG-FAC) at 202-372-1171/1107 or by email at [email protected]. For information about operations in the USA contact GAC USA at [email protected]