Precautionary Sensors to Scan for High Fever at Airports

The move follows the World Health Organisation (WHO) raising the pandemic level to Phase 5, indicating that a global threat is imminent, and the region reporting its first suspected case in Bahrain on Thursday.

Though the 40-year-old man travelling from the US raised a scare after being identified with high fever while passing the thermal scanner at the Bahrain International Airport, the authorities later confirmed that he tested negative in the preliminary tests.

As the infection spread on different continents, WHO Director General Margaret Chan urged all countries to immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans.

“At this stage, effective and essential measures include heightened surveillance, early detection and treatment of cases, and infection control in all health facilities,” she said on WHO’s website.

In a press statement, UAE Minister of Health Humaid Mohammed Obeid Al Quttami said the Technical Health Committee Combating Swine Flu, after a meeting on Thursday, decided to install and use thermal scanners at Abu Dhabi and Dubai international
airports immediately.

Three cameras were being installed late Thursday night at the Dubai International Airport to screen passengers alighting from US and Canada flights. The screening will begin on Friday.

“The committee has also alerted the General Civil Aviation Authority to take similar precautionary measures in all the international airports in the country,” said the minister, who also heads the Supervisory Executive Committee Combating Swine Flu.

“The committee will apply all WHO accredited standards in measures related to prevention and treatment. We have already secured enough medication, masks and personal protective equipment to protect our society. So far, no case of swine flu is reported in the UAE.”

Health Authority Abu Dhabi said it was monitoring the HINI outbreak through its 24-hour Incident Command Centre.

“HAAD has an incident response plan in place involving public health and is tracking the swine flu outbreak by the hour.

Hospitals and health facilities are on high alert for people presenting with flu-like symptoms,” a HAAD release said. It also advised anyone travelling from the affected areas to seek medical help if flu symptoms develop.

The Secretary General of National Committee for Emergency Response to Bird Flu Majid Al Mansoury, who convened a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, said the national bird flu emergency plan would be implemented in every respect to control swine flu at the early stage of human to human infection.

Reviewing the national plan that was chalked out in coordination with WHO, US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and other local health bodies in 2008, Mansoury said the plan would stand the country in good stead as it follows WHO guidelines for response to a pandemic in each stage.

“There is enough supply of anti-viral drugs in our stockpile that can treat up to 400,000 persons [in the event of an outbreak],” he said.

The meeting also discussed multi-pronged plans for awareness programmes covering government departments, schools, universities, armed forces and various other key groups. It also discussed instructions for hotels which welcome international travellers.

Meanwhile, the UAE Foreign Ministry instructed the UAE embassies and consulates abroad to take necessary preventive measures against swine flu.

A WAM report quoting the Director of the Consulate Department at the Ministry Ambassador Sultan Mohammed Al Qirtasi said the ministry had set up a hotline with the missions abroad to follow up reports on the UAE nationals in respective countries. He said the UAE missions in affected countries also had set up hotlines for assisting the Emiratis living over there.

sajila@khaleejtimes.com