The Director-General,Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority,NCAA, Harold Demuren has described the series of airport evaluations conducted between the 9th -11th of February, 2008, by the International Civil Aviation Organisation,(ICAO) and the co-operative Arrangement for the Prevention of Spread of Communicable Disease by Air Travel(CAPSCA) in Lagos and Abuja Airports to ascertain the country's level of preparedness to checkmate the outbreak of communicable diseases by air travel, as the first in Africa.

Demuren, who disclosed this in Abuja, yesterday during the ICAO CAPSCA steering committee meeting in Abuja, said that the team had successfully assessed the level of preparedness of the two major Nigerian Airports in the prevention of communicable diseases by air travel .He said that the evaluation was carried out using checklists from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Health Regulations(IHR).

A CAPSCA and ICAO statement issued at the meeting said Lagos and Abuja International Airports were evaluated for compliance with ICAO guidelines and the relevant articles of the World Health Organisation International Health Regulations(2005)on pandemic preparedness planning for the aviation sector.

The team therefore congratulated Nigeria for taking the initiative to have its airports pandemic preparedness plans evaluated, making it the first country in Africa to do so.'ICAO team is very pleased that Nigeria has initiated the airport evaluation process for CAPSCA Africa. ICAO CAPSCA project team acknowledges the co-ordinated and excellent effort being contributed by all agencies to develop effective aviation pandemic preparedness plans that are in concert with the state preparednesss plans for Nigeria,"the statement read.

CAPSCA is an initiative of ICAO which aims at providing assistance to countries to enable them comply with Article 14 of the Convention On International Civil Aviation' Prevention of Spread of Diseases'; as well as ICAO annex 9,paragraph 8.16 that requires states to establish a national aviation plan in preparation for possible outbreak of serious communicable diseases.