Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said it had started screening passengers arriving from places at risk from Ebola and had suspended Pan-African Airline, Asky, for bringing the first case to Lagos.
The Federal Ministry of Health’s Port Service Director, Sani Gwarzo, urged aviation stakeholders to be abreast of the dangers posed by the virus. It has been reported that Port Health officials have been deployed in Lagos and Abuja airports’ arrival halls to test passengers for symptoms of Ebola.
“Screening and monitoring is being done at all major airports. It entails checking passengers’ temperatures with a hand-held machine,” NCAA spokesman, Sam Adurogboye, said. He added that this was meant for any journey that passed through Liberia, Guinea or Sierra Leone.
A compulsory blood test would follow if the passenger’s temperature gave cause for concern, he said.
International Airlines Association said that the World Health Organisation was not recommending any travel restrictions or border closures due to the outbreak, and says there would be a low risk to other passengers if an Ebola patient flew.
A consultant for Liberia’s Finance Ministry, Patrick Sawyer, in his 40s, collapsed on arrival at the Lagos airport on July 20 on an Asky flight.
He was put in isolation at the First Consultants Hospital in Obalende, one of the most crowded parts of the city, but died early on July 25.
“We have suspended Asky until they are able to show us what measures they have put in place for passengers to ensure they do not bring Ebola,” Adurogboye said.
Authorities were monitoring 59 people who were in contact with Sawyer, including airport contacts, and had been seeking to make contact with all passengers that were on his flight. The latest outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever began in the forests of remote Eastern Guinea in February.
It starts with headaches and fever, and final stage symptoms include external and internal bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea.
Sierra Leone declared a State of Emergency and called in troops to quarantine epicenters of Ebola on Thursday.
Ebola has been blamed for 729 deaths in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization. One died in Lagos, a crowded city of 21 million people.