Frontier: Going Above And Beyond CDC Recommendations To Clean Plane
DENVER (CBS4)- The Frontier Airlines jet that the most recent Ebola patient traveled in is being cleaned inside a hangar at Denver International Airport.
The airline claims they are going above and beyond the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations in cleaning the plane where Amber Vinson traveled between Dallas and Cleveland.
Vinson is the second nurse to test positive for Ebola after caring for the first patient in the U.S. to be treated for the potentially deadly disease, Thomas Duncan. Duncan was diagnosed while visiting Dallas. He died Oct. 8 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Frontier is replacing some of the items inside the plane to alleviate any concerns that passengers or employees may have. The plane's carpet, filters and seat covers are being replaced in the vicinity where Vinson was sitting.
Frontier also placed six crew members on paid leave for 21 days, the incubation period for Ebola.
The airline would not confirm if the crew that flew in with the plane to DIA on Wednesday evening is the same crew that traveled from Dallas to Cleveland with Vinson on board.
The plane is undergoing its fourth cleaning since Vinson's flight. It was also the topic at Thursday's Congressional hearings on Capitol Hill.
"If you need personal contact with bodily fluids why is there an airliner in the Denver airport right now that Frontier Airlines has scrubbed four times?" asked one congressman.
"I understand that people are very concerned about Ebola. It's a scary disease. I can't comment on exactly what the airlines are doing," said CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden.
"So it's really for public perception. They really don't need to be doing that," said the congressman.
Experts maintain that it's not likely passengers who traveled on the plane with the nurse from Dallas are infected with Ebola because the virus is spread through direct contact with body fluids.
"It dies very quickly so there are really no examples of someone having acquired an Ebola infection from touching the environment," said Dr. William Schaffner, Professor of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Frontier is also notifying passengers on seven flights that they either flew with Vinson or on a later flight using the same plane.
That includes a flight from Dallas to Cleveland last Friday, one from Cleveland to Dallas on Monday night, and five other flights with the same aircraft on Tuesday.
The airline said Thursday that it was telling those passengers to contact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention if they were concerned. The CDC has downplayed risk of exposure to other passengers.
