BREAKING NEWS: Health officials to board ship docking in N.O. tonight

[cajuncocoa]

NEW ORLEANS -- The Centers for Disease Control confirms that its health experts, members of the U.S. Coast Guard, and government epidemiologists will board a ship scheduled to dock Wednesday night in New Orleans East.

A state official told WWL-TV this afternoon that the ship alerted state and U.S. health officials that three of the crewmen are sick.

The official says that a radio transmission from the ship reported symptoms that appear to be similar to malaria, an illness spread by mosquitoes.

The official also told WWL-TV the boat originated in Africa. The CDC confirms that The New Orleans Emergency Operations Center has been alerted.

They also told WWL-TV the boat is set to arrive at the Jourdan Road Terminal in New Orleans East at 9 p.m.

WWL-TV is following this story and will have live reports tonight at 5 and 6 p.m.
http://www.wwltv.com/story/news/local/orleans/2014/09/17/health-officials-to-board-ship-docking-in-no-tonight/15791245/

[tangent4ronpaul]

Ebola symptoms are similar to malaria - as if malaria wasn't bad enough...

-t

[Zippyjuan]

Update says disease not known at this time and that the ship (and its crew) were not in ebola infested areas.
http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/health-officials-waiting-for-ship-to-dock-in-new-orleans-crew-showing-symptoms-of-malaria/28110618


According to a release from the CDC, the ship was reported to have traveled to a port in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and additional others in Africa.

"There is no evidence to suggest that the crew members traveled to, or had any contact with anyone from the remote inland region of DRC," the CDC stated.



Editors Note: Initial information from health officials stated the crew was sick with malaria-like symptoms, but the CDC said in a recent statement issued to media outlets that the specific illness the crew members were experiencing wasn't immediately known.

I checked some shipping times from Africa to Panama and according to schedules here http://www.jocsailings.com/GlobalSailingSchedules/SailingScheduleResults.aspx?ORIGIN=Africa&DEST=Panama&DR=60&DT=2014%2f9%2f17&VT=all%2c

it seems to take about 18 to 30 days to travel from Africa to Panama by boat. The ship was there at least a couple days before sailing up to New Orleans. Ebola has an incubation period (time between exposure and showing symptoms) of two to 21 days http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/ so symptoms would have showed up well before they even got to Panama if they were exposed in Africa. Malaria incubation period is 9 to 14 days so possibly were exposed to mosquitos with it in Panama? Or it could be something else.

[cajuncocoa]

Update: (with video) http://www.wwltv.com/story/news/local/orleans/2014/09/17/health-officials-to-board-ship-docking-in-no-tonight/15791245/

[Zippyjuan]

They released the name of the ship- the Marine Phoenix which is a refrigerated cargo ship flagged out of Liberia. I found more details on it here:
http://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/MARINE-PHOENIX-IMO-9072824-MMSI-636013523

It lists its last five ports of call as:


Date / Time Port Country
Jul 17, 2014, 04:04 UTC COLON Flag of Panama Panama
Apr 10, 2014, 04:02 UTC GIBRALTAR Flag of Gibraltar Gibraltar
Apr 09, 2014, 22:05 UTC CEUTA Flag of Spain Spain
Feb 17, 2014, 21:02 UTC ODESSA Flag of Ukraine Ukraine
Feb 07, 2014, 23:03 UTC SPLIT Flag of Croatia Croatia

If this is accurate, then it has been several months since it was in Africa- way past any incubation period for any diseases like ebola from there. Even Panama was nearly two months ago (unless they stayed there a while). Perhaps some form of food-borne or water- borne contamination?

Link says it was due in New Orleans a month ago (August 14th).

So far, one crewmember has been brought ashore and is in a hospital- listed in "critical" condition. http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/health-officials-waiting-for-ship-to-dock-in-new-orleans-crew-showing-symptoms-of-malaria/28110618 Up to four may still be brought in plus the river boat captain who boarded the vessel.

[mad cow]

They released the name of the ship- the Marine Phoenix which is a refrigerated cargo ship flagged out of Liberia. I found more details on it here:
http://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/MARINE-PHOENIX-IMO-9072824-MMSI-636013523

It lists its last five ports of call as:


If this is accurate, then it has been several months since it was in Africa- way past any incubation period for any diseases like ebola from there. Even Panama was nearly two months ago (unless they stayed there a while). Perhaps some form of food-borne or water- borne contamination?

Link says it was due in New Orleans a month ago (August 14th).

Your link says Last 5 port calls as detected by AIS
AIS is only good to ~200 miles offshore and You could swim from Panama to New Orleans in 2 months.Or walk for that matter.

Maybe much of Africa doesn't have AIS yet.

[Zippyjuan]

Thanks for the information. You are right that there is limited coverage in Africa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_identification_and_tracking_(ships) There is a time gap between leaving Gibraltar and reaching Panama (April 10 to July 17th)- Panama was reported on the news as their last port and that was, according to the AIS, two months ago- but allowing for time to cross the ocean (not sure how long that takes), we are still talking perhaps three months or so since leaving Africa according to available data.

Well outside the incubation period for ebola.

[tangent4ronpaul]

hmmm...

https://www.vesseltracker.com/en/Home.html
click on the coverage tab for a pic

vesseltracker.com is the first AIS-Provider to combine terestrial with satellite positions, allowing our users to track vessels on the open sea. With over 100,000 vessels every day, encompassing almost the entire merchant fleet.

-t

[tangent4ronpaul]

https://www.vesseltracker.com/en/CoveredAreas.html?sat=1

https://maps.vesseltracker.com/coverage/world_sat.png

https://www.vesseltracker.com/en/CoveredAreas.html

https://maps.vesseltracker.com/coverage/world.png

-t

[HVACTech]

Thanks for the information. You are right that there is limited coverage in Africa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_identification_and_tracking_(ships) There is a time gap between leaving Gibraltar and reaching Panama (April 10 to July 17th)- Panama was reported on the news as their last port and that was, according to the AIS, two months ago- but allowing for time to cross the ocean (not sure how long that takes), we are still talking perhaps three months or so since leaving Africa according to available data.

Well outside the incubation period for ebola.

oh, I don't know zippy.
but I do have a suggestion..
(don't sniff the seats) :)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9SCzVEUlqqA

[HVACTech]

?
yes dear.

[Zippyjuan]

hmmm...

https://www.vesseltracker.com/en/Home.html
click on the coverage tab for a pic

vesseltracker.com is the first AIS-Provider to combine terestrial with satellite positions, allowing our users to track vessels on the open sea. With over 100,000 vessels every day, encompassing almost the entire merchant fleet.

-t

They list their AIS tracker in the Congo as being in Pointe Noire which is just over 200km from the nearest port- Banana https://www.vesseltracker.com/en/Port/pointenoire/Dashboard.html

http://www.milltechmarine.com/faq.htm

What is the range for AIS receivers?

Since AIS uses the same VHF frequencies as marine VHF, it has similar radio reception capabilities which is basically line of sight. This means that the higher your VHF antenna is mounted, the greater the reception area will be.

Reception from Class A vessels that are 20 or even 30 miles away on open water is not uncommon.

Class B transponders use lower power for transmissions, therefore you can expect Class B vessels to be acquired when they are 5 to 10 miles away.

Note that AIS has a major advantage over radar since it can see ships within radio reception range that are behind large objects, such as other ships or points of land.

so it is possible it was there and not registered in the AIS system.

[tangent4ronpaul]

post 9
pic a sat AIS reception
pic b terrestrial AIS reception and locations of stations

-t

[Zippyjuan]

Illness was diagnosed as malaria. http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/health-officials-waiting-for-ship-to-dock-in-new-orleans-crew-showing-symptoms-of-malaria/28110618

[TheCount]

Illness was diagnosed as malaria. http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/health-officials-waiting-for-ship-to-dock-in-new-orleans-crew-showing-symptoms-of-malaria/28110618

But what about my doom? I'm wearing paint masks and I put plastic up all over my house!

[Acala]

I was betting on chikungunya