Alphonce Shiundu
30 June 2009
Nairobi — Health officials have now enjoined their immigration counterparts to check the spread of the deadly H1N1 (swine) flu virus.
No passenger is allowed into the country via Jomo Kenyatta International Airport without signing a mandatory health declaration form.
A spot check by the Nation at the airport saw hundreds of passengers filling-in the forms before they were cleared at the immigration desk.
According to JKIA's Public Health boss Philip Ndania, such rigorous screening will help to stop the spread of diseases into the country.
The form requires one to give details of the country they have visited and state whether they have experienced any symptoms associated with the H1NI virus.
"If any of them indicates that they have had the symptoms, then we send them to the clinic for proper diagnosis," Mr Ndania said.
Among the symptoms listed in the form are fever, coughs, sore throat, chest pains, and difficulty in breathing.
Such signs could indicate any other disease such as tuberculosis, asthma or common cold, but the diagnosis at the airport clinic is what clears one to come into the country.
The passengers are also expected to fill in their itinerary, at least for the first three weeks, indicating their contact details.
Mr Ndania said a room to take in 50 patients had been set aside as an isolation point for any positive or doubtful cases.
A person will be isolated for between four and eight hours while samples are tested to ascertain if they are infected.
A few passengers who had just arrived from Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia gave the upped surveillance a thumbs-up. Many of them dutifully filled the forms before progressing to the immigration counter for clearance.
The health officials handed out the forms and could be heard shouting instructions to passengers on which numbers to call in case they fell sick within three weeks of coming into Kenya.
A section of the form --which remains with the passengers -- has hotline numbers 0722916904 and 0733 890776 for the National Influenza Centre and 0722331548 or 020 2718292 for the Disease Surveillance Unit.
There are also flyers and posters at strategic points at the airport to help educate the public on the virus.The flyers in both English and Kiswahili have tips on the precautions to ward off the disease.
Only one case has been reported in Kenya since the outbreak alert for the H1N1 virus was issued by the World Health Organisation on April 29.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
