Probe lapse in anti-Ebola screening at airport

I am a physician concerned about the breach in Ebola screening at our airport. Some passengers recently came home from the West African countries where Ebola is currently an epidemic and passed through our airport without any screening. We must thank our lucky stars that the six passengers who came from Liberia are not reportedly infected with the deadly virus. We must strengthen the screening system at all the entry points to the country, otherwise we will have to pay a big price. When the World Health Organization declares it as “the most severe acute health emergency seen in modern times” and the developed world is struggling to restrict this virus's entry into their countries, we are showing complete indifference to this mortal danger. There is no scope for mistake here and concerted efforts from the authorities are necessary for proper screening of the passengers; blaming each other for the negligence will not help.

Investigation into this breach is essential to find out the flaws in the system so that such incident does not happen again.

Dr. Ajay Kumar Agarwalla, MBBS, MPH
Assistant Registrar (Medicine)
General Hospital, Dinajpur