The thermal scanner is not operational at the Islamabad airport, raising the threat of Ebola | Health

ISLAMABAD: A non-operational thermal scanner installed in the new Islamabad International Airport to filter pbadengers from Africa contaminated with the Ebola virus could make the country vulnerable to cross-border transmission of diseases.

It was found that the thermal scanner installed in the new Islamabad airport to detect the virus among pbadengers was down, while the staff of the Department of Health was absent from their designated office.

Such flagrant disregard for public health at entry points could expose Pakistan to the deadly Ebola virus, highly contagious and transmissible through the blood, saliva, urine or vomit of an infected person. .

The current Ebola outbreak in Africa has reportedly killed 676 people and infected 406 others.

The Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is spreading at its fastest pace, eight months after its discovery, said Monday the World Health Organization.

More than 11,000 people died in the Ebola outbreak in 2013-2016 in West Africa. Since then, health authorities around the world have worked to speed up their responses and have rolled out an experimental vaccine and treatments, both of which have been found effective.

Pakistan's National Institutes of Health (NIH) has called on health authorities to put in place a rapid and effective response to outbreaks and outbreaks of diseases that should be alert between March and June 2019.

NIH has described chikungunya, cholera, CHF, dengue, leishmaniasis, measles, polio and whooping cough as high priority communicable disease.

Typhoid fever (a highly drug-resistant strain) and Naegleria fowleri have also been designated as national coronaviruses and Ebola viruses and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS CoV) as international events in the spring.