Mangalore: Screening for swine flu on at Bajpe airport

The Hindu
(Pic: File picture)

MANGALORE, May 5: Air passengers from West Asia are being screened for swine flu at the Mangalore Airport. According to Department of Health, the screening has been going on for the last three days since Saturday morning.

A screening counter, manned by two health officials, who are working in shifts, has been set up at the airport. More than 400 passengers from Doha and Muscat in West Asia had been screened and none of them were found to have contracted the disease, sources said.

The screening operations are being headed by Krishnamurthy, a medical officer attached to the Central Health Scheme. He is being assisted by the medical officer of the primary health centre at Bajpe.

Deputy Commissioner V. Ponnuraj said that the district administration was in the process of identifying an isolation ward to treat any confirmed cases of the disease.

There are no direct flights to the city from Mexico, the U.S. or other western countries where the outbreak is at its worst. Allaying fears, Mr. Ponnuraj said that there were very slim chances of the swine flu causing virus entering the city.

“However, health officials are not taking any chances and are screening the incoming passengers for symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, and so on,” he said.

Officials said that they were more worried about the panic that might spread among the people here about the disease. “We are well equipped to identify and quarantine any case of swine flu,” said a senior health official.

NMPT

S. Sampath Kumar, health officer of the New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT), told that the chances of the H1N1 virus entering the city from the sea were feeble. “The incubation period of the swine flu causing virus is 10 days. There is no chance of any foreign ship reaching here within that time,” he said. According to him, the H1N1 virus that causes the disease dies within 10 days. Ships coming from the affected countries such as the U.S. take a minimum of one month to reach Mangalore. Hence the disease would have run its course before reaching the city, he said and added that even the ships from the Persian Gulf took several weeks to reach here.

Screening seafarers for epidemics and other minor illnesses was part of the standard practice at the NMPT. “We do not have to do anything special,” he said and added that he was in constant touch with the district’s Health Department and awaiting formal directions from the Union Health Ministry in this regard.