Imho, the 'advice' that Astraeus has given to the crew is admirably both 'open & honest' and prompt - in that it has informed the crews that they might have had some exposure, however small is the actual risk, of contracting this disease.
yellowstar, you might not realise this, but every year people contract and die from all manner of both strange and common diseases, ones that are contracted both at home and overseas, wherein to be worried about this you must live in a very cosseted / naive world old son !
With particular respect to Lassa fever, could I invite you to have a good read of the information available from the
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where, in particular, it says:
The virus cannot be spread through casual contact (including skin-to-skin contact without exchange of body fluids).
So, one imagines that unless you are swapping spit and / or other bodily fluids (
) with your passengers, your risk of contracting this disease is negligible ( though, theoretically, not zero ); of which might I offer you an analogy, e.g. in that one finds that one has been onboard an aircraft amidst a passenger who was, say, infected with HIV / AIDS, i.e. the most likely outcome is that you won't be infected, but the risk is not zero.
Indeed, and as the above mentioned article suggests, the number of
infections per year (in West Africa) of the Lassa virus is estimated at anything between 100,000 and 300,000, with approximately 5,000 deaths in that number.
Aside - did you know that, annually, approx the same number of people die in the UK from something no more exotic than the
Flu !
Perhaps putting Lassa fever into perspective, statistics from '
The World Health Organization' estimate that for
MALARIA:
- Each year there are, globally, between 300 to 500 million cases of malaria.
- Of those malaria cases, anything between 1 to 3 million people die of as a result; and 75% of those deaths will be African children.
- In areas of Africa with high malaria transmission ( e.g. West Africa ), an estimated 900,000 people die annually as a result; That equates to close-on 2,500 deaths per day, and / or approx 2 deaths per minute, every minute, of every day.
I.e. as many people die every two days as a result of malaria than die annually from Lassa fever - but we don't see you bleating on about that, do we ?!
Look, I'm not in general saying that anybody would prefer to contract either disease, or indeed any disease, but surely having an objective opinion about the true level of risk must be of some consideration ( though obviously not in your case ).
W.r.t. ( as per your original thread ) other airlines
not wanting to operate such routes - nothing could be further from the truth - which, in a way, just goes to prove how little you know about the airline business !
Ps. Yellowstar it was not me who removed your post(s) - indeed it was none of the mods associated with AEU - but wherein we made sure it was put back; so there's no need to bother with the conspiracy theories.