Shahjalal airport gets 3 thermal scanners to check Ebola

The government has set up three archway thermal scanners at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital to record temperatures of arriving passengers as part of precautions against the Ebola threat.

Health Minister Mohammed Nasim inaugurated the installation of the thermal scanners yesterday afternoon.

The scanners will measure body temperatures of the passengers passing through them. Around 7,000 passengers arrive at the airport daily.

Fever is one of the primary symptoms of Ebola infection. Now medical teams are using hand-held thermal scanners to check the body temperatures of the people coming from the West African countries, which are struggling to contain the deadly virus.

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

Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and Director General of the DGHS Dr Deen Mohammad Nurul Haque, among others, were present at the inauguration ceremony.

The government has purchased seven archway thermal scanners from Singapore to prevent Ebola intrusion into the country.

Three other scanners would be set up at Chittagong and Sylhet airports and Benapole land port soon, said Nasim.

He said another scanner would be kept on standby for emergency use.

The seven scanners and some other necessary equipment cost Tk 2.45 crore, an official of the DGHS said.

On October 16, an inter-ministerial meeting held at the airport decided to purchase these 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.

Since mid-August, the government has put 25 air, sea and land ports on alert and assigned medical teams to quarantine any suspected case immediately after detection.

Despite these arrangements, six Bangladeshis returning from Liberia passed through the Dhaka airport unscreened in October.

The screening process has been made more efficient following that incident.