Oman to install thermal scanners at airports and border check posts
Muscat: Determined to keep H1N1 (swine) flu out of its shores, Oman’s Ministry of Health (MoH) has decided to install thermal scanning machines at all the airports and major border check posts, according to a senior ministry official on Tuesday.
“We have decided to screen each arriving passenger at the airports as well as the border check posts,” Dr Salah Bin Thabit Al Awaidy, Director of the Department of Communicable Disease Surveillance and Control (CDSC), told Gulf News, at his office on Tuesday.
“The decision has been taken and we are now waiting to procure more machines,” he said.
Oman has land borders with the UAE, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Thermal imaging was last used at Muscat International Airport in 2003-2004 at the height of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) in south-east Asia. Following the latest swine flu outbreak, many countries around the world have already begun installing and using scanners that can pinpoint arriving passengers with high fever, which is symptomatic of, among other ailments, the H1N1 influenza.
Dr Al Awaidy revealed that two doctors would be stationed at the Muscat International Airport where he said that the screening machine could be operational in a day or two.
The decision to install thermal scaners is to isolate potential cases from the arriving passengers. “Every passenger will be screened and not only those coming from affected countries,” he said in reply to a question.
He also said it was decided to make it mandatory for all the arriving passengers to sign a self-declaration form and provide details of recent visits, if any, to countries reporting H1N1 outbreaks or if they suffer from flu-like symptoms.
Besides seeking basic personal details and contact particulars, the form will have two basic queries to passengers: whether they travelled or transited any country with a confirmed H1N1 flu outbreak during the preceding fortnight, and if they exhibit any flu-like symptoms, such as fever, cough, running nose, breathing difficulty, and so on.
A list of countries that have confirmed H1N1 cases, as validated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), will be provided along with the Entry Declaration. Passengers answering in the affirmative to either of the two questions will be required to report at the Health Ministry’s Quarantine Section at the airport where a medical team will be on hand to provide further assistance to the individuals concerned.
Meanwhile, the Directors General of Health Services and directors of hospitals in the country’s regions held a meeting to discuss precautionary measures to address the H1N1 virus disease, says a statement from the MoH.
Dr Jehan Taoula, World Health Organisation’s Representative in Oman, said that the virus was responding to treatment but, as such, there was no difference between it being in the fifth or sixth stage. She stressed the need to continue to maintain preventive procedures.
The importance of activating a hotline for communication, emergency plans in hospital, patient isolation and virus sample analysis were also discussed during the meeting.
© Gulf News 2009. All rights reserved.
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