Desks for Zika screening at BIA [September 04 2016]

by Carol Aloysius

All passengers are to undergo voluntary screening and testing for Zika at the Bandaranaike International Airport ( BIA) Katunayake. Disembarking passengers will also be given leaflets on symptoms of Zika, a mosquito borne disease for which there is no vaccine, for self evaluation, and forms to indicate if they have travelled from a high risk country such as South America, Health sources told the Sunday Observer, Saturday.

Speaking on grounds of anonymity, they said if any passenger was suspected to have symptoms of the disease, he/she would immediately be referred to the Hospital for Infectious Diseases ( IDH) at Angoda, which is ready for any emergency.

"Sri Lanka is still free of this disease. We need to keep it that way", they said.

Commenting on rumours that Zika patients had already entered the country they admitted there had been some rumours recently, but stressed they were baseless. " There have been no confirmed reports of the disease in Sri Lanka", they reiterated.

The sources said, all hospitals had been alerted and medical officers and trained nursing staff instructed on what to do if a patient with positive symptoms was admitted. " Although Zika is a mild form of flu, we are taking special precautions with regard to pregnant women , due to birth abnormalities being discovered in proven studies in Brazil, where the disease first emerged in a big way", a health official said. "We have advised pregnant women who want to travel to high risk countries to postpone their visit till after the baby is born."

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has assured the public that it is ready to handle any emergency situation, in the instance of any form of infectious disease breaking out, such as MERS and Ebola. "We have enough trained staff and skilled doctors. We also have Personal Protective Equipment ( PPE), such as, face masks, headgear, aprons, eye guards and boots, as well as an excellent hospital waste disposal system", they said.

The Health Ministry's recent move comes ahead of the President's decision to eradicate communicable and non-communicable diseases in the near future.