Over 36,000 screened for Ebola in India

As many as 36,460 passengers have been screened for Ebola in India so far and 700 are being currently tracked by Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), as per a statement issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on December 9. Of the total people screened, 3,6379 were found to be in the low risk category, eight in medium risk and 73 in high risk.

Of the 700 passengers being tracked, most are in Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal and Delhi.

Passengers arriving at 18 international airports and nine major ports from the affected countries are being screened for Ebola. IDSP is even keeping a track of passengers who have not reported any symptom at the time of arrival but could be at a high risk due to contact with a suspect case during their stay in an affected country. Crew members of flights arriving at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi and Trivandrum (covering 11 airlines) have been sensitised by the Airport Health Organisation on the standard operating procedures for passenger screening at airports.

The National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, and National Institute of Virology, Pune, are the nodal testing agencies for testing the Ebola virus and are testing the medium and high risk cases. Overall, more than 100 samples have been tested at these two laboratories. Ten additional laboratories have been identified by the Indian Council of Medical Research for testing the virus.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has also conducted separate trainings for the State Rapid Response Teams.

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