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Ebola measures look slack

6 Bangladeshis returning from Liberia allowed to exit airport without test; airlines, immigration, medical team blame each other

Shariful Islam and Porimol Palma
When the whole world is on alert for the fast-spreading deadly Ebola virus, passengers from Ebola-affected Liberia have entered Bangladesh through Shahjalal International Airport with no health screening at the airport.
Six Bangladeshi passengers from Liberia entered the country on October 9 without the knowledge of immigration, the medical team at the airport and the airlines concerned.
Luckily, none of the six were infected with the virus.
They are now blaming each other for the passengers' getting through, highlighting the concerns and questions over the health
check systems in place at the airport.
Health experts said it would be disastrous if the agencies responsible did not play their due role in foolproof screening of people coming from the affected countries.
The issue is of huge importance as the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported a total of8,399 suspected cases and 4,033 deaths as of October 8 due to the deadly outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
A US citizen, infected with Ebola in Liberia, recently died in Dallas, while a Spanish nurse was found infected with the virus.
This Ebola epidemic is the worst since the discovery of the virus in 1976, prompting
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the WHO to declare an international public health emergency.
Health ministry officials say Bangladesh is a low-risk country as it has no direct flights with the West African nations.
However, there are over 500 Bangladeshi peacekeepers in Liberia and some Bangladeshis work there and they run the risks of infection.
Considering these, the health ministry had declared a 90-day alert on August 11, and yesterday the ministry extended it for a few more months. In August, it also deployed medical teams to check people suspected of carrying the virus in 25 ports.
Yet, the six passengers' getting through proves how full of holes the system is.
Ruhul Amin, 35, one ofthe six passengers, told The Daily Star over the phone, "After check-in at the immigration, we came out of the airport without any health screening since nobody asked us for it.”
Ruhul, who worked at a shopping complex at Bong of Bhanga city, went to Monrovia Robat Airport on October 7. From there, they first flew to Algeria and then to Morocco. Then, he and his
three relatives reached Dhaka via Qatar on a Qatar Airways flight. Two others travelled by another airlines from Morocco.
During their 190km road journey to Monrovia, they underwent screening thrice and twice at the airport. They also underwent screening at the airports in Algeria and Morocco.
He claimed that some more Bangladeshis returned home from Liberia and Sierra Leone recently without any health check at Shahjalal International Airport. The Daily Star could not independently verify his claim.
Ruhul said he was screened at Gauranadi Upazila Health Complex, and his three relatives were checked at Shahjalal International Airport yesterday when they went to collect their luggage. None of the six were infected, Ruhul claimed.
Asked, Dr Be-NazirAhmed, line director of Communicable Disease Control Programme at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said medical team checks travellers on the basis of information provided by the immigration authorities.
The immigration did not inform the
medical team, he said, adding that the immigration later wrote to the DGHS about the issue.
Special Superintendent of Police (immigration) AZM Nafiul Islam said as the airlines were supposed to provide a list of passengers and notify well ahead about the passengers either coming from the four Ebola-affected African countries or touching those on their way.
However, in this case Qatar Airways did not notify. He said they were yet to verify whether the six passengers came from any of the four countries.
"If they really came from Liberia, we'll take action against the airlines," he added.
Nafiul said since those passengers' last departure was from Qatar, immigration failed to identify their original departure.
"Sometimes, it is not possible to ask every passenger since several hundreds arrive on a single flight," the official said.
Qatar Airways Station Manager Jamil Ahmed said it was not their responsibility to detect from where passengers have embarked on their journeys. He passed the responsibility to immigration.
He said they gave a list of the passengers to immigration. "We provide detailed information of a particular passenger only if the immigration asks," Jamil said.
Another official of the airlines said the immigration police at the airport check passports of all passengers. So, they could detect the country passengers originally started the journey from.
In a meeting with the officials, Health Minister Mohammed Nasim yesterday expressed surprise over the issue.
"The way the disease is spreading, even in the developed countries, we must be very alert so in no way Ebola could enter our country," he said.
According to the health ministry data, a total of 123 people travelled to Bangladesh from the Ebola-affected countries, but none has been found infected.
Dr Saif Ullah Munshi, associate professor of Virology at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, said, "There must be very rigorous monitoring at the ports. A single mistake can cause disaster."
Not only for Ebola, the authorities should have a long-term plan to detect all viral diseases, he added.