US experts inspect Ebola screening at Dhaka airport
A US team today visited the international airport in Dhaka to inspect Bangladesh’s preparations to prevent the deadly Ebola virus from entering the country.
The team comprises of experts of the US Centre for Disease Control, a US Embassy official, an expert of the icddr,b and local health experts, said Dr. Rezia Akhter Begum, airport health officer, of Hazrat Shajalal International Airport.
“The US team witnessed our preparations – how we screen people and how we coordinate with the airlines to get information about people coming from Africa,” Rezia told The Daily Star.
Replying to a query she said the team members had some discussions with Prof Be-Nazir Ahmed, director (Communicable disease control) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), but did not give any observations regarding their arrangements at the airport.
She said so far 168 people entered Bangladesh from Ebola affected West African countries and 97 of them have been completed 21 days follow-up period and they are in good health.
The US team visited the airport a week after six Bangladeshi citizens entered the country slipping through the watch at the airport.
Dr Rezia said five of the six people have already undergone health screening while they are still trying to find the other persons who remain without screening.
The World Health Organization (WHO) termed the Ebola outbreak in the West African countries – Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria an international health emergency.
The worst outbreak on has killed 4,447 people so far, mostly in those countries.
Bangladesh government has posted medical teams to screen Ebola at 25 international, sea and landports though it said Bangladesh is a low-risk country because there is no direct link between the West African countries and Bangladesh.
Professor Mahmudur Rahman, director at the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research, said the US team that visited the airport has not made any observations on the arrangement.
The health screening arrangement at the airport is one of the best in the world, he said.
“This is because the airlines inform the immigration whenever somebody buys ticket from the West African countries. The immigration then communicates it to the medical team posted at the airport,” he said.
On their arrival, the medical teams inquired them, checked temperatures and kept contact numbers for follow-up, he said.
An official at the DGHS said the US is very cautious about the deadly disease, Ebola, after one of its citizens died last week.
Comments