A Pediatrician at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi has expressed serious concern about what he describes as unhygienic practices prevailing at the Domestic flight Section of Kotoka International Airport (KIA) because of the huge health hazard it posed to travelers.
Dr Anthony Enimil, the West African World Health organization (WHO) Co-ordinator in Charge of Tuberculosis, alleged that security personnel at the gates use only one disposal hand gloves to search all passengers.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency,in Kumasi, he expressed profound worrythat the practice coupled with the fact there are no hand sanitizers for public use, could promote the spread of infections if left uncheckedin the face of the Ebola scare.
The Paediatricianwho is also in charge of adolescent TB at the KATH and also lectures at the Tamale campus of the University of Development Studies (UDS) said he and others at the arrival gate of the domestic flight department went through that experience.
This was when he was returning from Tamale last Friday on a domestic flight.
He said airports are major areas where infections can spread easily because many people from different parts of the country and international travelers meet to travel to other parts of the country and around the world daily.
“Within the Airport passengers go through many activities such as using toilets (washrooms), sneezing into their hands, shaking friends and so forth”, he said
DrEnimil said the security person will most likely pick microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi) from one person and transfer it to other persons, exposing those who pass through the gate later to more risks as they were likely to pick more germs than those who pass through earlier.
He has advised KIA authorities to adhere to the use of one pair of clean disposable gloves on each passenger, whiles hand sanitizers are also made available for the security to use to clean their hands in between touching passengers to stop the spread of infection.
“Disposal gloves are very cheap and therefore there is no justification for one pair of gloves to be used on all passengers, at least each passenger should have a clean pair of gloves used on him/her”, he added.
All efforts to reach the Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Ghana Airport Company, the institution GNA learnt held the responsibility for security checks, proved futile.
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