As India gears up to prevent the Ebola virus from entering the country, the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad has set up four teams of doctors to screen the passengers flying in from the virus-hit West African countries.
"Four teams of doctors have been posted at RGIA (Rajiv Gandhi International Airport) to screen passengers arriving from the West African countries for the deadly Ebola virus," Jupaka Mahesh, Airport Health Organisation Chief and Senior Regional Director (Regional Office for Health and Family Welfare), told DNA.
These teams will be working all around the clock to check the passengers coming in from Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The teams would not only check for the Ebola symptoms in every passenger but also for their travel history.
"Our teams are working round-the-clock to examine any suspected cases of Ebola by checking passengers through their travel history and symptoms," Mahesh pointed out.
"Any passenger found/detected suffering from symptoms of fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhoea, joint and muscle aches, among others, would be kept in the isolation ward of Gandhi Government Hospital here where a nodal doctor has been posted."
An isolation ward has been kept aside at the RGIA to keep passengers who exhibit any of the symptoms of the Ebola virus. A doctor has been posted at this ward, who would take the necessary actions there on.
"So far as many as 150 passengers from Western African region have been examined (since the screening process started ten days ago). No case of the disease has been detected," Mahesh said.
Earlier, the government of Kerala had also announced that they would take precautionary measures to screen the passengers coming in from the West African countries. Teams of doctors have been set up at three international airports in Kerala.
The screenings would be done at the Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode, according to VS Sivakumar, the Health Minister of Kerala. The government has also set up treatment facilities in the general hospitals of the three cities.
A statement from the Kochi International Airport also stressed that all the necessary measures have been taken for setting up a quarantine facility.
