Brussels Airport hires specialized firm to handle and screen baggage from Ebola-infected areas.

Brussels Airport hires specialized firm to handle and screen baggage from Ebola-infected areas. (Yahoo).

Brussels Airport, a hub for flights coming from Africa, said on Friday it had hired a specialized firm to check baggage coming from Ebola-hit regions, after a union told its members to no longer handle such items.

The company will screen luggage from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia and destroy any it suspects may be contaminated.

Belgium's socialist union on Wednesday had called on its members at Brussels Airport to no longer handle baggage from infected areas.

The airport said in a statement it was "taking such concerns seriously."

European Union health ministers have agreed to try to improve West African nations' screening of departing passengers for Ebola, but disagreed on the need to check travelers arriving in their own countries.

Brussels Airlines, Belgium's largest airline, flies to 19 destinations in Africa including regular flights to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Belgium's health ministry on Friday appointed a national coordinator for Ebola and said it was considering measures such as checking incoming passengers from infected areas.

"I don't want panic to break out in the country," Health Minister Maggie De Block told a news conference in Brussels.

"Autumn is a time of infections and a runny nose or flu has nothing to do with Ebola," she added. Hmmm........The Belgium Health minister said that leaking Suitcases will be removed, i suggest the health minister to read up on Ebola at the CDC, Ebola can survive on hard DRY surfaces for several hours!  More on Ebola measures taken in Belium here.

  Are they right to be concerned? YOU BET THEY ARE ! 

SOURCE

Considering that Ebola can survive  for several hours dried on surfaces, it's only logical that anyone handling the luggage at the departure country is also in a higher risk category, from the person issuing the ticket at the airport to all staff handling the baggage.