Doctors at RGIA look for suspected Ebola cases

Hyderabad, Four teams of doctors are screening passengers arriving at the international airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad near here from West Africa, which has been hit by Ebola outbreak.

Four teams of doctors have been posted at RGIA (Rajiv Gandhi International Airport) to screen passengers arriving from the West African countries for the deadly Ebola virus, said Jupaka Mahesh, Senior Regional Director (Regional Office for Health and Family Welfare) and Airport Health Organisation Chief, said on Tuesday.

Our teams are working round-the-clock to examine any suspected cases of Ebola by checking passengers through their travel history and symptoms, he said.

Any passenger found/detected suffering from symptoms of fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhoea, joint and muscle aches, among others, would be kept in the isolation ward of Gandhi Government Hospital here where a nodal doctor has been posted.

So far as many as 150 passengers from Western African region have been examined (since the screening process started ten days ago)...No case of the disease has been detected, the senior doctor said.

Medical teams were also advising the people or passengers through awareness campaign at the RGIA coming from the West African countries after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the epidemic an international health emergency.

According to the WHO, as many as 1,013 people have died in the Ebola outbreak, which has hit Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and possibly Nigeria.