Official party acknowledges blunders in managing suspected Marburg virus scenario.
Hamburg's social services department acknowledged blunders in handling the false alarm of Marburg virus infection at the main station. Upon reviewing the actions taken and communication, it was discovered that the contact information of passengers on the affected ICE train wasn't logged, contradicting initial statements, as revealed by a representative from the social services department.
As per reports, a medical student arrived in Frankfurt am Main from Rwanda on October 2nd with a companion. The student claimed to have been in contact with a Marburg virus-infected patient twice while in Rwanda for his studies.
Scared of contracting the virus, he reached out to doctors in Hamburg. Hamburg's health authority assumed he had flown to Hamburg, but since he couldn't be reached by phone, precautions for isolation and transport were initiated at the airport.
However, it wasn't until the train arrived at the main station and passengers disembarked that the health authority discovered the young man had actually traveled to Hamburg by ICE. As a result, the Federal Police couldn't gather contact details from passengers who had been on the same ICE train as him. However, data from passengers planning to return to Frankfurt with the same train was collected.
Lack of thorough cleaning
The reason for this oversight: The ICE was cleaned at the Hamburg-Langenfelde operating yard, but not under decontamination conditions, which prompted the Federal Police to halt the train in Hamburg-Harburg. At the halt, passengers who had utilized the train's toilets were requested to report due to a potential infection risk. The medical student and his companion are said to have used several toilets on their journey to Hamburg.
The spokesperson for the social services department confirmed that the medical student and his companion were tested on the same evening. Negative PCR results arrived at the Bernhard Nocht Institute during the night and were sent to the social services department about 8:50 a.m. The relevant authorities were notified by the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) during the night.
If the tests had yielded positive results, the social services department would have been informed promptly, the spokesperson emphasized. Furthermore, measures would have been taken to identify potential contacts utilizing Deutsche Bahn data and a public appeal.
Despite the negative test results, the disease transmission risk on the affected ICE train remains a concern. The social services department should have actively pursued contact tracing, even with the negative test results, given the potential for asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic transmission.
Had the initial communication and logkeeping of passenger contact information been more thorough, contact tracing could have been initiated more effectively, potentially minimizing any potential spread of the disease.
