US experts inspect Ebola screening:Daily Star

A special US team yesterday inspected Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital to learn about the arrangements there to detect whether any arriving passenger is infected with the deadly Ebola virus. “The US team witnessed our preparations -- how we screen people and coordinate with airlines to get information about people coming from Africa,” Rezia Akhter Begum, health officer at the
airport, told The Daily Star. It had discussions with Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed, member secretary of inter-ministerial monitoring committee on Ebola, but didn't make any observations on the arrangements at the airport, she said. The team included Dr James Heffelfinger, Bangladesh country director for the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, and a US Embassy official. They were accompanied by local health experts, said Rezia. A total of 168 people have entered Bangladesh from Ebola-affected West African countries since August 12. Of them, 97 have completed the 21-day follow-up and are in good health. The US team's visit comes a week after six Bangladeshis returning from Liberia managed to pass through the airport without being screened. Rezia said five of them were screened later, and the authorities were still trying to locate the person who was yet to be screened. Advertisement Prof Mahmudur Rahman, member of inter-ministerial monitoring committee on Ebola, claimed that the health screening arrangement at the international airport is one of the best in the world. “This is because the airlines inform the immigration whenever somebody buys a ticket from West African countries. The immigration then communicates it to the medical team at the airport,” said Mahmudur, also director at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research. On the passenger's arrival, the medical team inquires after him, checks his temperature and collects his contact numbers for follow-up, he said. The World Health Organisation termed the Ebola outbreak in West African nations an international health emergency. The deadly disease has claimed at least 4,447 lives, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. Medical teams have been assigned to conduct screening for Ebola at 25 international, sea and land ports in Bangladesh. Coordination among airlines, immigration and medical teams has been strengthened after six Bangladeshi expatriates from Liberia were allowed to leave the airport without health screening on October 9, said Mahmudur.