Entertainers, stay away from West Africa

Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson.

Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson is to meet with representatives of the entertainment industry to speak to the issue of non-essential travel to Ebola-affected countries in West Africa.

Dr Ferguson was speaking on Friday, October 3 at the official reopening of the Williamsfield Health Centre in Westmoreland.

“I intend to meet with the Association of Musicians and the tourism minister because we will have to make some tough decisions. I have been appealing to persons, including entertainers, to avoid non-essential travel to the Ebola-affected countries in West Africa. If they still decide to go our actions may have to include quarantining persons,” Dr Ferguson stated.

Over the past months, steps have been taken to heighten surveillance and staff has already been sensitised and trained specifically with respect to Ebola. Public hospitals across the island have identified isolation areas and a facility has been refurbished specifically to accommodate isolation for Ebola.

The Ebola virus is a severe, often fatal illness with a death rate of up to 90 per cent. It is transmitted through direct contact with blood, other bodily fluids or secretion such as stool, saliva, urine and semen of infected persons. Infection can also occur if broken skin comes in contact with environments that have become contaminated with an Ebola patient’s infectious fluids such as soiled clothing, bed linen or used needles.

Symptoms include sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This may be followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver functions and, in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.

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Entertainers, stay away from West Africa

Entertainers who continue trips to Ebola-affected areas will be quarantined

Saturday, October 04, 2014 | 12:21 PM    

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson is set to meet with representatives of the entertainment industry to address the issue of “non-essential travel” to Ebola-affected countries in West Africa.

“I intend to meet with the Association of Musicians and the tourism minister because we will have to make some tough decisions,” said Ferguson, who was speaking Friday at the official reopening of the Williamsfield Health Centre in Westmoreland.

“I have been appealing to persons including entertainers to avoid non-essential travel to the Ebola affected countries in West Africa. If they still decide to go, our actions may have to include quarantining persons,” Ferguson said.

Over the past months, steps have been taken to heighten surveillance and staff has already been sensitised and trained specifically with respect to Ebola, the ministry said in a release today.

It added that public hospitals across the island have identified isolation areas and a facility has been refurbished specifically to accommodate isolation for Ebola.?

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Entertainers who continue trips to Ebola-affected areas will be quarantined

Two entertainers among five people arrested for lottery scamming

Wednesday, February 05, 2014 | 7:38 AM    

KINGSTON, Jamaica — The police have confirmed that two entertainers, a male and a female, were among five people taken into custody on Monday, February 3, suspected of being involved in lottery scamming.

Reports from the police are that about 4:00 pm members of the New Kingston Police Post were conducting a routine stop and search operation along Knutsford Boulevard when a motorist was cited for breaching the Road Traffic Act.

The motorist who did not have a driver’s licence in his possession gave name which turned out to be fictitious. Further investigations were conducted that resulted in the Lottery Scam Task Force being called in.

As a result the driver and the two occupants of the motor vehicle were detained.

Consequently, a probe was launched and an operation conducted at a house in the Kingston 5 area, which is the residence of one of the occupants of the motor vehicle, the police said.

During a search of the premises, the police allege that paraphernalia related to lottery scam activities were observed and seized.

The occupants of the house and the motor vehicle were also taken into custody on reasonable suspicion of breaches of the Law Reform (Fraudulent Transaction) (Special Provisions) Act, the police added.

The suspects are to be questioned in the presence of their attorneys, following which formal charges will be made against them.  

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Two entertainers among five people arrested for lottery scamming