Abdul Ghani Bin Muhammed Al-Maliki, Director of Health Control Centers at King Abdul Aziz Airport here, said the Ministry of Health has adopted a set of strict measures at all entry points to prevent the spread of swine flu and other diseases in the Kingdom. He said that as Jeddah's King Abdul Aziz Airport is the aerial gateway to the Holy Mosques, the Ministry of Health has assigned a large number of specialists to monitor arriving passengers to determine if they have contracted swine flu. The ministry has established centers which have been equipped with all of the laboratory facilities necessary for detecting the presence of the disease. Sophisticated thermal cameras, which have been set up at the Kingdom's airports, are capable of detecting very small changes in human body temperature. “These temperature differences can be sensed by the infrared detector and are generated into an image onto a screen,” Al-Maliki said. He pointed out that the thermal cameras have been installed in the arrival terminals and are monitored by doctors and technicians who can spot passengers carrying the disease. He assured the public of the Kingdom's long experience in dealing with all types of epidemics referring to the country's experience with the SARS virus, which causes severe acute respiratory syndromes, pointing out that that epidemic was treated with a high sense of national responsibility that prevented its spread in the Kingdom. He urged the public not to listen to rumormongers because the government has mobilized all its potentials to deal with the swine flu pandemic and has drawn up an integrated plan to handle all emergencies. Regarding methods of dealing with passengers who are suspected of carrying the disease, Al-Maliki said that a swab would be taken from the passenger's tongue and immediately sent to the regional lab in Jeddah and that the passenger would be made to sign an undertaking not to leave his residence until the test results are ready. “Moreover, the passenger will be informed of all the preventive measures that must be taken, such as, staying away from crowded areas and seeing a doctor if high temperature, difficulty in breathing or other flu symptoms occur,” he explained. Furthermore, he said a medical team has been assigned to clear passengers coming from areas affected by dengue and yellow fever besides asking the captains of planes to produce a fumigation certificate indicating that the planes have been fumigated before their arrival in the Kingdom. The airline crew will also be required to hand over empty cans of pesticides or insecticides used in fumigating planes in their country of origin. Additionally he said the health authorities at the airports will apply all preventive health measures to passengers coming into the Kingdom by providing them with meningitis and polio vaccines.
