POINT BLANCHE:--- On Tuesday, Ministry of Public Health, Social Development & Labour (Ministry VSA) officials met with the management team of Port St. Maarten regarding the ports preparations for Ebola.
Ministry VSA informed Port management about the national preparations that are taking place and the various meetings with stakeholders and others that are planned.
Country Sint Maarten has to comply with International Health Regulations (IHR) where public health is concerned. Since Ebola has been declared a global health threat, all countries have to take preventive measures to prevent its spread.
Information presented concerned Ebola symptoms, transmission mode, preventive measures, current global Ebola developments and measures taken to prevent the further spread of the disease.
Port St. Maarten is the first institution that has received the informative presentation from the Ministry. Port management stated that a program of increased sanitization of the port facility will be implemented and port tenants will also be asked to work along these lines as well.
Port management informed Ministry VSA that a delegation left on Wednesday to meet with representatives of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) in connection with the cruise industry's Ebola screening measures.
Port St. Maarten and Ministry VSA already have a working relationship with respect to a health pre-clearance protocol related to cruise ships. A cruise vessel has to report 48 and 24 hours timeframes ahead if there are any cases of the norovirus which is very contagious.
Port St. Maarten will share its findings with Ministry VSA with respect to the cruise line protocols which are in place when passengers board the ships out of Miami, and will further collaborate to make sure that the country's sea border is secure from a public health perspective.
Representing Ministry VSA was Dr. Viginia Asin, Fenna Arnell, Dr. Earl Best, Maria Henry and Margje Troost.
