Ebola screening facilities set up in PNG

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Health authorities in Papua New Guinea have established a screening system for Ebola at the Port Moresby airport.

The World Health Organisation’s Ebola expert, Dr Boris Pavlin said health quarantine officers from Papua New Guinea’s Department of Health are meeting every international flight to check declaration forms to identify passengers who have travelled from West Africa.

He told Pacific Beat nurses were also posted at the airport to assess people for any possible cases of Ebola.

“Their role is to actually do medical assessments should such a person arise,” he said.

“Indeed if the person has been to West Africa and only then they would be additionally screened with a temperature check and a proper medical evaluation.”

Dr Pavlin said the airport had the capacity to temporarily accommodate passengers if they were identified as needing to be isolated by health officials for further tests.

The Ebola virus has killed nearly 8,000 people mostly in the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea and is extremely infectious.

Health officials said the chance of it arriving in Papua New Guinea was very remote.