Ebola Disease: Federal Government Starts Passenger Screening At Airports

Thermal scanners,personnel and sanitisers have been deployed in Nigeria’s two major
international airports by the Federal Government as part of measures to forestall
another round of Ebola outbreak in Nigeria.

It was learnt that the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, and the Murtala
Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, were the two major focus areas, although plans were in top gear to extend similar surveillance to the
Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State,
as well as the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano.

Punch gathered on Sunday that the deployment of additional personnel in the airports followed the reported outbreak of Ebola virus in the
Democratic Republic of Congo recently.

The World Health Organisation recently
confirmed the death of at least one person as a
result of Ebola in the North-East of Congo, a
development that has prompted increased
surveillance in Nigeria.

Officials at the NAIA as well as the MMIA
confirmed to one of our correspondents on
Sunday that the Federal Airports Authority of
Nigeria was aware of the development in Congo
and had directed Port Health officials and its
doctors at the airports to step up their activities.

The Acting General Manager, Public Affairs,
FAAN, Mrs. Henrietta Yakubu, told The PUNCH
that although the screening of passengers had
been on since the last Ebola incident in Nigeria,
the authority had stepped up its surveillance on
inbound travellers at the arrival halls of the Lagos and Abuja airports following the recent
Ebola case in Congo.