Ebola Scare @ Airport

GHANA�S PREPAREDNESS at preventing a possible outbreak of the deadly Ebola Viral Disease in the country may suffer a jolt as screening measures at the Kotoka International Airport remain rather casual and relaxed compared to sister countries. Painstaking monitoring at the entry point reveals that the thousands of individuals entering the country are not issued with health declaration forms to track whether they have travelled to any of the Ebola-hit countries or are experiencing common symptoms associated with the disease. The only activity that is conducted by port health officials at the airport is screening persons entering the country with temperature gun in a rather hurried manner. Disturbingly, the health officials running the screening had no gloves and face masks on, thus, exposing them to danger assuming they come into contact with a person infected with the virus. The paper can confidently report that no details are recorded by the officials to track the traveller�s temperature. When this reporter visited Kenya to gauge their Ebola preparedness after being tagged as a high risk country, unlike Ghana, port health officials there thoroughly ensured that travelers filled the health declaration forms irrespective of where they were travelling from. The forms are thoroughly scrutinized; individuals who refuse to fill them are barred from entering Kenya. The health officials record temperature of every person entering the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Persons with higher temperature are made to wait for further testing.When the paper contacted Michael Achabeng, officer-in-charge of Ebola Responsiveness at the Port Health, he explained that the health declaration forms are for persons travelling from Ebola-hit countries. Asked how the officials would be able to determine whether someone from a high risk country had made a transit from a country that had not been hit, he asserted that per the protocol arrangements, not everyone is made to fill the forms due to logistical constraints. He, however, discounted suggestions that the temperature was being taken in a manner that allowed persons to escape being detected if they had high body temperatures.