•We are not using photography camera but thermal scanner, we also screen for other epidemic diseases – Port Health

While international passengers at our nation’s gate way airports particularly Murtala Muhammed International Airport complain of slow passenger’s facilitation because of a situation they ignorantly attributed to Ebola  screening BIODUN AKOMOLAFE reports that the new screening process is not meant for Ebola scanning but for other epidemic diseases which are yet to be made public.

While international passengers using the nation’s gate way airports particularly Murtala Muhammed International Airport complain of slow passenger’s facilitation because of the presumed Ebola screening process in place, BIODUN AKOMOLAFE reports that the new screening process is not only meant for Ebola scanning but for other epidemic diseases which are yet to be made public.

While many international passengers travelling out at the gate way airports across the country believed troubles associated with Ebola screening process should have been reduced following the certification of the country by World Health Organisation (WHO) as Ebola free, the passengers complained that the screening process is becoming more rigorous with the introduction of a new machine which the alleged slows down the process and makes facilitation cumbersome and stressful.

The passengers claimed that the disease screening processes they go through at the airport has been causing many passengers to miss their flights and requested for a faster process.

They claimed that despite the certification of Nigeria as an Ebola Virus free country by the World Health Organisation (WHO) the officials of the Federal Port Health Authority of the Federal Ministry of Health have not relented on the screening process.

The passengers who made their complaints known to Newswatch Times at the departure halls of Murtala Muhammed International airport Lagos, said after obtaining a form from health officials in the main hall, each passenger, apart from normal known airport screening, is subjected to another round of screening conducted by the health workers attached to the airport terminal.

Though the passengers claimed they are not against the screening but they argued that the process could be made to move swiftly to avoid situation where many passengers miss their flights after waiting for hours on the very long queue meant for the screening.

A passenger who simply identified herself as Mary claimed her daughter missed her flight two days while waiting for her turn to undergo the health screening process.

She alleged that the screening which involves the taking of photographs of each passenger was too slow and cumbersome and needed to be looked into if they airports authority does not want to face litigations from affected passengers.

When contacted, the Port health Services of the Federal Ministry of Health on the new development, what warranted it and possible solutions to the complaints, the Director of Port Health Services at the Federal Ministry told Newswatch Times that the passengers may have to bear with the health screening process for now for their benefits and that of the country.

The Director of Port Services who corrected the impression that a photography camera has been mounted top take pictures of every travelling passengers using the airport, said what is in place is a thermal scanning camera use to complement and or replace the small hand held thermal scanners common to the public.

He explained further that the new machine is installed and operated not only to scan for Ebola alone but other diseases which are already in epidemic stage which are not yet made public but which World Health Organisation has given advisory on. He added that the port health services has the mandate to prevent the spread of such diseases through our ports

“The travelling public don’t understand what is happening. We are not taking photographs, what we have in place is a thermal scanner. It is not a camera that takes photograph. It is a thermal scanner. It scans for temperature it is used to complement and or in place of the smaller hand held thermal scanner that are common to us.

“People don’t know that we are not dealing with only one type of diseases now we are dealing with threat of Ebola, we are also scanning for threat of other diseases which are not been imported which are part of the screening exercise to port health. There are other international epidemics that are happening now that have not been announced fully; but WHO has send advisory on them. For us to be more careful we are screening for more than Ebola now,” the public health expert explained.

The Public health expert who refused to mention any of the epidemic diseases, because he does not have the permission to do so, however appealed to Nigerian travelling public to exercise patient as they go through the new scanning process

Also he said screening at the domestic airports across the country has been discontinued for a while because there is no known threat to Ebola or any other epidemic diseases within the country.

He said there is a protocol in place that regularly evaluates the threat of the epidemic. He claimed that if threat is noted within the country the personnel would be returned to posts at the domestic airports and whenever there is no threat of such epidemic the personnel have to be withdrawn.

“We have analysed the whole country there is no any internal domestic threat of Ebola. But we continue to face external threat. We have to face external threat from outside Nigeria that is the reason we have to discontinue. We are not stopping we only discontinued for a short time. We always have a protocol that review the threat; once the threat increases we would come back, if there is no threat we take off,” he said..