Passengers arriving from domestic and international flights into Nnamdi Azikwe Airport, Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, are now being subjected to intense screening at the Abuja airport as part of measures to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Port Health Services, a division of the Ministry of Health, started the exercise at the airport last Friday with passengers arriving from the Emirates Airlines being the first to be screened.
It was gathered that another 200 passengers who arrived on board Ethiopian Airline Flight- 911 in the afternoon were also screened. The passengers comprised nationalities of Sudan, China, Zimbabwe, UAE, among other African and European nationals. An official told reporters that the exercise was now a daily routine at the international and domestic arrivals of the airport.
The exercise, just like in other airports in the country, is being carried out with the use of a special thermometer pointed towards the passengers to take their temperature. According to a port health official, “if your temperature is normal, usually below 37 (degrees centigrade), you will be allowed to go but anything beyond 37 you will be asked to step aside and you will be checked more closely.”
Some passengers who spoke to our correspondent said there was nothing wrong with the screening. Some of them said the screening should have been done inside the plane or targeted at passengers coming from the West African sub-region where the virus is rampant. A Liberian, Patrick Sawyer was the first person to test positive for Ebola Virus in Nigeria. The man was taken from the airport and put in isolation in a local hospital, were he died on July 25.