RIYADH: Thermal cameras are to be installed at all entry points to the Kingdom to monitor passengers and these digital surveillance machines will be operational within the next 48 hours, the Ministry of Health announced yesterday.
Arab News visited the airports in Riyadh and Jeddah to see if thermal screening was in place but found that the process had not yet been implemented. The ministry, in its response, said that within the next 48 hours the digital surveillance would be operational.
Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mirghalani told Arab News yesterday that the Kingdom was gearing up to counter the spread of the swine flu and until the thermal screening becomes operational quarantine officials at airports and seaports have been instructed to be on alert to check passengers who come from infected countries for fever.
Beginning next week, the ministry would launch a Kingdomwide awareness campaign, he added.
Meanwhile, the Airlines Operating Company, a body comprising all foreign airlines that operate to King Khaled International Airport, has offered the airport authority its support to screen the passengers coming from the infected countries.
According to World Health Organization officials, the best way to keep the disease from spreading is by taking everyday precautions such as frequent hand washing, using tissues to cover up when coughing and sneezing and staying away from work or school if not feeling well.
Essam Azhar, professor of molecular medicine at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, said a unit studying infectious diseases at the university is geared to diagnose swine flu virus using the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), which produces results in a few hours.
The spokesman said that the ministry is carefully monitoring the flu-related developments in the region. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) health ministers will meet in Doha on Saturday to discuss coordination of efforts to face any possible outbreak.
Kuwait yesterday began airport screening of passengers arriving from countries with reported cases of swine flu. Travelers arriving from six countries, including Mexico, the United States and Britain, will be checked at the airport for any rise in temperature, deputy head of public health Yussef Mendkar told a news conference in Kuwait City.
However, he stressed that the country is “totally free of the disease” that has killed a confirmed seven people in Mexico.
All doctors in Kuwait’s public and private sector have been instructed to immediately refer “suspected cases” to the infectious diseases hospital for further examination, Mendkar said.
Kuwait has around 10 million capsules of the Tamiflu medicine, sufficient to treat up to one million flu patients, he said.
Mendkar said Kuwait has not imposed travel restrictions to any country, but “we strongly advise people not to travel to countries that reported swine flu cases.”
The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday placed its busy airports under strict surveillance for the disease. Bahrain decided to suspend imports of live pigs and pork products.
— With input by Muhammad Humaidan and agencies
