WorldStage Newsonline— As part of efforts to prevent another Ebola outbreak in Nigeria, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said it had intensified screening of inbound and outbound passengers at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) , Lagos with the use of thermal and infrared scanning equipment.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had on May 9 directed that steps should be taken to prevent the Ebola Virus Disease from entering into Nigeria following a fresh outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Port Health officials were on Wednesday seen at the airport using infrared scanner to screen passengers who arrived on a Kenyan Airways flight after the thermal scanner had ascertained their temperature.
Also, sanitiser and soaps had been provided at toilets at the airport to ensure passengers maintained high level of hygiene.
The Regional Manager, MMIA, Mrs Victoria Shinaba, told newsmen that all the equipment put in place when Ebola was brought into Nigeria in 2014 by an American-Liberian, Mr PatrickSawyer, had been reactivated.
Shinaba said an emergency contingency plan in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO ) and World Health Organisation (WHO) requirements, had been activated to ensure that any passenger with traces of any communicable disease was isolated and attended to.
She noted that the new arrangement where passengers were screened bodily with the prescribed scanners was carried out to convince airports users that FAAN was on top of the situation.
