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SARS-like virus: BIA staff on alert, but no special checks yet
Airlines, customs, Immigration and security staff have been alerted to take precautions to identify any persons who may have symptoms of coronavirus initially reported from China, the Bandaranaike International Airport’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. D.R. Perera said.
He said the staff had been placed on alert, but they had not installed devices to detect fever patients, as in previous instances.
Dr Perera said they were closely following the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines and if the need arose they would take necessary action.
Chief Epidemiologist Dr Sudath Smaraweera said that if any persons were identified with the symptoms of the disease on arrival they would be isolated and transferred to the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) at Angoda and treated separately.
“Our Epidemiology unit has informed the medical unit at the BIA to adopt similar steps adopted earlier during previous outbreaks such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Ebola,” he said.
However, he said there was no necessity to panic as there had been no detection of any persons affected by the virus.
He said among the precautions to be taken were avoiding gathering in crowded places, covering the face when sneezing, avoiding touching the nose and face regularly and keeping the hands clean by washing them with soap.
He said pregnant mothers and small children in particular should avoid going into crowded gatherings.
According to Reuters news agency, China reported four more cases of pneumonia believed to be caused by the new coronavirus strain, causing rising concern globally that a disease health officials do not yet fully understand could spread during a key holiday period.
The new virus, which was discovered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, belongs in the same large family of coronaviruses that include SARS, which killed nearly 800 people globally during a 2002/03 outbreak that also started in China.
Meanwhile, more than 1,700 people in Wuhan had early symptoms of being infected with the new coronavirus, in stark contrast to the 41 infections reported by China, according to a UK-based group of researchers involved in infectious disease modelling.
The group also warns that past experience with SARS and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, coronavirus outbreaks of a similar scale suggest self-sustaining human-to-human transmission should not be ruled out.
U.S. authorities have said they would start screening at three airports to detect travellers arriving via direct or connecting flights from Wuhan.
In Asia, authorities in Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand have stepped up monitoring of passengers from Wuhan at airports. Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines say they have strengthened screening at all points of entry in response to the outbreak, as well.