Bangladeshi health officials have installed thermal scanners at the country’s largest international airport to screen passengers arriving from countries affected by the Zika outbreak, a senior minister said yesterday.
The devices were installed at Shahjalal International Airport in the capital Dhaka, Health Minister Mohammad
Nasim said.
No cases of Zika have been reported in Bangladesh.
If a passenger is believed to be infected with the virus, he or she will be kept in an isolation ward inside the airport,
Nasim said.
Passengers from 30 Zika-affected countries will be screened at the airport health desk, he added.
The World Health Organisation declared a public health emergency concern due to Zika, urging countries to strengthen their surveillance and take preventive measures to stop the
virus from spreading.
“The government has already set up digital scanning machines at every entry point of the country to test every person who comes from Zika virus-affected countries,” Nasim said.
The minister said the government would bear the expenses for patients, if any, infected with the virus.
Meanwhile, an expert said risk of Zika virus infection in Bangladesh is low as the countries affected by the mosquito-borne disease are far away.
“If the virus has to spread in Bangladesh, active case of Zika infection has to come here. Not many people are coming here from those countries like South America,” said Prof Mahmudur Rahman, director at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and
Research (IEDCR).
The Zika virus spreads through aedes mosquitoes, and the mosquitoes’ peak reproduction time here is during the rainy season, not now, he told
newsmen.
Besides, the authorities here have good surveillance and testing systems to detect the disease, if ever found, Mahmudur said.
The most common symptoms of Zika virus disease are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting from several days to a week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the US.