No lapses in Ebola checks, says JNIA boss

An immigration officer checks data on a computer screen connected to a camera that scans passengers for signs of Ebola as they file past the arrivals (Top right) at the Julius Nyerere International Airport. PHOTO | VENANCE NESTORY 

By Athuman Mtulya, The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

• PREPAREDNESS: Airport authorities respond to reports that not enough is being done to screen arriving passengers for deadly disease
• The JNIA management granted The Citizen a tour at the facility for a first-hand account of the walk-through scanners testing arriving passengers for the disease that has impacted heavily on the health systems of affected countries

Dar es Salaam. Authorities at Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) have dismissed claims that arriving passengers are not screened for Ebola, the viral disease that has claimed nearly 5,000 lives, mostly in West Africa.

JNIA director Moses Malaki said unlike airports in other countries, they were using scanners instead of hand-held thermometers to screen possible cases of Ebola.

 Mr Malaki granted The Citizen a tour at the facility for a first-hand account of the walk-through scanners testing inbound passengers for the disease that has impacted heavily on the health systems of affected countries and also affected tourism in the region due to the falling number of visitors.

The use of the concealed scanners was not easily noticeable and that had many travellers raising concern over their safety and that of other visitors arriving in the country. They feared that the authorities were not taking screening seriously  like in the neighbouring countries, which use  thermometers. Every passenger was also required to fill in a special form.  

The tour by The Citizen of the JNIA follows a story published on Saturday comparing Ebola checks in Kigali, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam’s main entry points.

In the two neighbouring countries, the screening is more visible. At JNIA, only two health workers are visible, attracting queries whether that was enough to detect and handle any emergencies.

Part of the false alarm by this writer followed a casual treatment by health workers at the airport. “We have other superior machines that are a bit old fashioned. You have all been tested without knowing it,” one of them remarked, but declined to show what she was saying when asked.

On Saturday, at the invitation of Mr Malaki, The Citizen team observed the two scanners at work. The scanners have been placed in far corners of two arrivals gate, one at the end of stairs for the passengers who enter the building directly from the plane through the tunnels and another for the passengers who are shipped to the building through airport shuttles.

The gadgets are connected to a computer which reads body temperature of passengers and sounds an alarm when it records an unusually high body temperature.  The Citizen observed passengers going through the test unknowingly and for about two hours that we spent there no one had a fever.