3 scanners installed to check Ebola

The government yesterday installed three archway thermal scanners at Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka as part of its precautions against Ebola threat.

The scanners will measure body temperature of every passenger arriving at the airport as they exit through it, say officials concerned. Around 7,000 passengers arrive at Dhaka airport every day.

Fever is one of the primary symptoms of Ebola infection. At present, medical teams use hand-held thermal scanners to detect body temperature of passengers coming from the West African countries.

“We have set up two archway thermal scanners at the immigration point and another at the VVIP entry and exit point at the airport in Dhaka,” Prof Be-Nazir Ahmed, director (communicable disease control) at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) told The Daily Star.

Health Minister Mohammad Nasim, Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon and State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Kamal are set to inaugurate the scanners at the airport at 4:00pm today, sources say.

The government has recently purchased seven such scanners from Singapore to check Ebola spread in the country.

Three other scanners would be installed at Chittagong Airport, Sylhet Airport and Benapole Land Port soon, said Be-Nazir, who is also the member secretary of the inter-ministerial monitoring committee on Ebola.

He said another scanner would be on standby in case it was needed by other places.

Asked about the cost, he said the seven archway thermal scanners and some others necessary pieces of equipment cost Tk 2.43 crore.

An inter-ministerial meeting held at the airport on October 16 decided to purchase seven archway thermal scanners amid growing concerns over the spread of the deadly virus that claimed around 5,000 lives, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.

The total number of reported Ebola cases is more than 13,000.

The government has already put 25 air, sea and land ports on alert since mid-August and assigned medical teams to check if any of the arriving passengers is infected with the virus.

Despite the arrangements, six Bangladeshis returning from Liberia have managed to pass through the airport in Dhaka without being screened in October, revealing a gaping flaw in the screening system.

Following their entry, the inter-ministerial meeting directed the immigration, airlines and medical teams at the airport to work in a more coordinated way to ensure that every passenger from the West African countries be screened.