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Medicine Transportation Science

Monkeypox Scare Grounds Flight In Chicago 109

Hugh Pickens writes "AP reports that when a Delta Airlines flight touched down at Midway International Airport in Chicago, the passengers looked out the window to see the jet surrounded by fire trucks, police cars and ambulances. Health officials came through the door wearing facemasks and other protective gear. As it turns out the bedbugs that infest hotels appear to be the source of red marks on a 50-year old Minnesota woman that prompted health officials to quarantine the jet for fear they were dealing with something much more serious: monkeypox. Lise Sievers called her mother during a layover in Detroit and told her that one of the children she visited and is trying to adopt in Uganda had some pus-filled red bumps and also mentioned she had some small bumps of her own, a rash that she suspected was the handiwork of bedbugs. Those two very different bumps — one with pus, one without — got jumbled up in Siever's mother's mind, and she called a hospital near her Indiana home to ask about treatment for her daughter. 'She told them her daughter is on a flight back from Uganda and has some red bumps which are pussing and what should she do to treat them,' says Roger Sievers. 'She was looking for some general advice.' Health officials feared they were looking for monkeypox, a rare and sometimes fatal disease mostly in found in central and western Africa. After the passengers waited on the plane for a couple of hours, officials brought good news. 'They came back down and told my mom it was bed bug bites and they started releasing people.'"
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Monkeypox Scare Grounds Flight In Chicago

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    Well, the alternative is monkey pox!

  • Somebody needs to find that monkey paw. No doubt some shyster's put a pox on Delta for their dastardly short-sell scheme.

  • Stupid people... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Shoten ( 260439 )

    "Hey, I just wanted to ask about treatment for this disease that my potential daughter has in FUCKING UGANDA that I've been exposed to, but I'm not going to really be clear in my mind as to the symptoms, especially after I've already come back to the United States and am walking around in a large metropolitan airport."

    Can we start imprisoning people for being idiots yet? Please?

    • by Amlothi ( 207848 )

      I know it's Slashdot and nobody expects you to RTFA, but you didn't even read the summary:

      Hey, I just wanted to ask about treatment for this disease that my potential daughter has in FUCKING UGANDA that I've been exposed to, but I'm not going to really be clear in my mind as to the symptoms, especially after I've already come back to the United States and am walking around in a large metropolitan airport.

      1) I'm pretty sure she'd know it's truly her daughter, but maybe you want them to do a maternity test first?
      2) The daughter wasn't in Uganda at the time of the phone call.
      3) The summary doesn't mention that the mother was ever exposed or at risk of exposure.
      4) The daughter (not the mother) was in the airport and, according to the summary (I know, I know... who bothers to read all the way through before posting?) she wa

      • by Shoten ( 260439 )

        Addressing the points you raised...

        1, "Potential" daughter, because she was adopting the girl. Maternity is not a factor here; it's an adoption. I'm assuming it's pretty rare for maternity tests on adopted children to come back positive, but maybe I'm just stupid that way...so I figured we'd pass on the test.
        2, It doesn't matter where the daughter was during the phone call. My point is that the phone call happened (to quote myself) "after I've already come back to the United States," which is the problem

    • by swalve ( 1980968 )
      I heard the woman on the radio yesterday. Seemed like a sweet woman, but sounded very much like that Aunt we all have whose mind cannot be changed by anything, and who speaks in nothing but implication. "Wellll, she WAS in Uganda, and she DOES have these red bumps. I don't THINK it's monkeypox, but I'm going to keep saying monkeypox until you believe it's monkeypox and overreact, and then I can say that I told you it certainly wasn't monkeypox. Monkeypox."
  • "monkeypox, a rare and sometimes fatal disease"

    As opposed to MonkeyShines, a more common and fun disease.

  • Seriously, you guys either need to stop posting his spam as stories or just give him the keys to the store and get out of the way. Why is this even considered for a Slashdot story? There's no News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters angle AT ALL. And that's typical of the spam from Hugh Pickens. You ban other spammers, now do the same for him.

    • It IS a notable story, the first time in 10+ years that I hear a story about airports where security officials and procedures do the right thing.
      Send 'em a pie. :)

      • by g051051 ( 71145 ) *

        Notability isn't the issue. The issue is the type of story. That story was already covered to death in the regular press. Slashdot is for tech stories, and this doesn't have *any* tech angle at all. Unless you count someone using a cell phone?

  • by Sponge Bath ( 413667 ) on Saturday April 28, 2012 @08:46AM (#39831471)

    The good news is the person next to you on the plane does not have monkeypox. The bad news is that person's clothes, and now the plane seats, are infested with bed bugs. Thanks for sharing.

    There is no protection from the inconsiderate behavior of your fellow traveller.

  • Those passengers were lucky they weren't tased, pepper sprayed and dragged off to jail.

  • by mtrachtenberg ( 67780 ) on Saturday April 28, 2012 @09:11AM (#39831571) Homepage

    This is incredibly cheering news. There are still people in government capable of responding quickly and effectively to try to corral a potentially devastating epidemic.

    After all the news about the TSA saving us by groping four year old girls, this is practically redemptive news. Not everyone in government is a fool, even after the thirty year decline.

    • Not everyone in government is a fool, even after the thirty year decline.

      I don't think there are very many fools in government, aside from about 535 in charge of the operation.

  • So, wait... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by s0nicfreak ( 615390 ) on Saturday April 28, 2012 @10:27AM (#39831903) Journal
    The child in Uganda actually has the symptoms of Monkeypox, right? How do we know the mother doesn't have it and just isn't showing it yet? How is this child not going to infect others when he is bought over to America?
  • American orphans aren't good enough for her? Pathetic.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Why is that pathetic ? They're all just kids. It's not as if the american kids fought in nam or something.

      Maybe the lady in question was born in uganda herself and would like a child from the same area.

      Also, while being an orphan in the US certainly doesn't sound all that pleasureable, one could make the argument that those kids are at least fed and given a bed to sleep in. I have no expertise on the subject but i imagine orphans in uganda are often not as well off.

  • So they let her off the plane and onto the streets to spread more bedbugs.
    This city astounds me sometimes.

  • I understand the quarantine and think it was justified, but if this was a simple symptom mixup, then why did it take a couple of hours to clear it up?

    CDC's quick response: good. Slow follow through: bad.

  • It's not often that it's good news that it's "just" a bunch of bed bug bites!

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