Airports to have thermal sensors

Chennai: The Union ministries of civil aviation and health have come up with the assurance that all international airports in the country would be equipped with thermal sensors shortly. The assurance was given on Monday d by cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar during a briefing on the H1N1 flu held through video conferencing that saw chief secretaries and principal health secretaries from all states participating.
During the session, Tamil Nadu chief secretary K S Sripathi urged the aviation ministry to provide thermal sensors for screening thousands of passengers who arrived in India from the flu-hit zones. "Both the ministries have in principle agreed to make them available as early as possible. But they have told us that these machines will not replace the individual screening process," said health secretary V K Subburaj.
Chennai airport director K Natarajan said he was expecting a notification for setting up sensors by Wednesday. "The Airport Health Organisation and the health ministry are already coordinating for installing these sensors," he said.
So far, nobody has tested positive in India. Teams of doctors from the Central Government Health Scheme and other doctors from state cadres have been roped in for screening people at the international airports. At the Anna International Airport in Chennai, 24,670 passengers from over 200 flights was screened for symptoms of flu.
"Elevated body temperature is one of the easiest symptoms to detect," said Dr S Elango, director of public health. "Fever, with temperature higher than 98.6 F, is often a good clinical indication of a possible infection. The body temperature increases because of increased metabolic rate. This can happen with any flu. When a passenger passes through the thermal sensor, it beeps if the person has elevated body temperature," he explained.
06/05/09 Times of India

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Categories: Airports May 2009