THE Federal Government yesterday directed that all aircraft and ships arriving Nigeria be checked and cleaned up to ensure that both passengers and luggage have no trace of the swine influenza. The directive came as the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon. urged a global effort against the pandemic even as the flu spreads to the Middle East and Asia -Pacific region.
Minister of Environment, John Odey, who disclosed the government’s directive to reporters at the Presidential Villa, Abuja yesterday, added that "the government has dispatched experts to sea ports and airports to ensure that this directive is carried out."
The directive became necessary, he said, following the outbreak of the flu in Mexico and other parts of Europe.
The influenza was first reported in Mexico on April 16 and has been linked to the death of over 100 Mexicans.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) had earlier issued a health alert that the flu has the potential of becoming an epidemic. The WHO therefore asked each country to take adequate measures to avoid its spread.
Consequently, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) yesterday began to refer passengers coming from Mexico, North America, South America to the Nigerian Port-Health Services clinics at the airports.
Also to be referred to the health service are passengers and anyone who has travelled to the affected areas in the last one month.
The agency has been authorised to screen passengers by looking out for signs and symptoms like fever, loss of appetite, cough, sore throat, rashes and running nose.
This directive was handed to the agency at an emergency meeting called by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) at the Lagos airport on the swine flu alert. It was attended by airport managers, seaports, land borders and immigration officials. Also in attendance were the NIS, Port-Health managers, airline operators, Quarantine Service and… Customs personnel.
A top official of FAAN who was at the meeting told The Guardian that, "suspected cases will be isolated and confirmed cases will be referred to Mainland Hospital, while asymptomatic passengers will be health educated and advised to report any of the symptoms like cough, running nose, sore throat and fever to the nearest health facility."
The source said the government also directed medical crew of airlines and ships coming from the affected areas to look out for passengers with cough, running nose and/or fever and inform the Port-Health services clinics accordingly.
One other way of checking for the virus, he said, was to identify the passengers in the two rows in front and the back of the "suspects" and refer them to Port-Health clinic at the port on arrival.
Meanwhile, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) yesterday put its 2,500 members on a global "pandememic alert" following reports of a simultaneous outbreak of a new type of swine influensa in three Mexican cities, and with cases reported in the United States (U.S.) and Europe.
The association said: "We take published reports on the trans-species influenza very seriously, and we are urging all members to familiarize themselves with contagion and pandemic awareness plans – first conceived during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003."
Meanwhile, Ban has called for global solidarity against the pandemic. .
In a hurried media briefing on Monday afternoon in New York, Ban said a rapid response to the new threat is under way.
"The swine flu outbreak shows yet again that, in our interconnected world, no nation can deal with threats of such dimension on its own,"Ban said, stressing that it is the first test of the pandemic preparedness work the community of nations has been undertaking in the past three years.
Ban emphasized that the UN system is responding quickly and effectively, led by the World Health Organization (WHO), the head of which was in constant contact with him, as well as other senior UN officials.
A WHO emergency committee has been set up as the front line against the deadly new swine influenza.
Announcing that the World Bank and other UN development and humanitarian agencies will provide funding to countries needing additional resources to combat an epidemic, Ban declared that the poorer nations must not be hit disproportionately hard by a potential health crisis.
"So far, our response has been an example of multilateral cooperation at its best. I am confident that it will continue to be so," he said.
However, the influenza crossed new borders yesterday with the first cases confirmed in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, as world health officials said they suspect American patients may have transmitted the virus to others in that country.
World stock markets also fell yesterday as investors worried that any swine flu pandemic could derail a global economic recovery.
Most people confirmed with the new swine flu were infected in Mexico, where the number of deaths blamed on the virus has exceeded 150.
But confirmation that people have been infecting others in locations outside Mexico would indicate that the disease was spreading beyond travellers returning from Mexico, WHO spokesman, Gregory Hartl, told reporters yesteday in Geneva.
Hartl said the source of some infections in the U.S. and Britain was unclear.
The swine flu has already spread to at least six countries besides Mexico, prompting WHO officials to raise its alert level on Monday.
"At this time, containment is not a feasible option," said Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of WHO.
New Zealand reported yesterday that 11 people who recently returned from Mexico contracted the virus. Tests conducted at a WHO laboratory in Australia had confirmed three cases of swine flu among 11 members of the group who were showing symptoms, New Zealand Health Minister Tony, Ryall, said.
Officials decided that was evidence enough to assume the whole group was infected, he said. Those infected had suffered only "mild illness" and were expected to recover, authorities said. There are 43 more suspected cases in the country, officials said.
The Israeli Health Ministry also yesterday confirmed the region’s first case of swine flu in the city of Netanya. The 26-year-old patient recently returned from Mexico and had contracted the same strain, Health, said Ministry spokeswoman, Einav Shimron.
Dr. Avinoam Skolnik, Laniado Hospital’s medical director, said the patient has fully recovered and is in "excellent condition" but will remain hospitalised until the Health Ministry approves his release.
Another suspected case has been tested at another Israeli hospital but results are not in, the ministry said.
Meanwhile,,a second case was confirmed yesterday in Spain, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez, said a day after the country reported its first case. The 23-year-old student, one of 26 patients under observation, was not in serious condition, Jimenez said.
With the virus spreading, the U.S. prepared for the worst even as President Barack Obama tried to reassure Americans.
At the White House, a swine flu update was added to Obama’s daily intelligence briefing. Obama said the outbreak is "not a cause for alarm," even as the U.S. stepped up checks of people entering the country and warned U.S. citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico.
"We are proceeding as if we are preparing for a full pandemic," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
The European Union health commissioner suggested that Europeans avoid non-essential travel both to Mexico and parts of the U.S., Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus.
Mexico, where the number of deaths believed caused by swine flu rose by 50 per cent on Monday to 152, is suspected to be ground zero of the outbreak. But Mexican Health Secretary, Jose Angel Cordova, late Monday said no one knows where the outbreak began, and implied it may have started in the U.S.
"I think it is very risky to say, or want to say, what the point of origin or dissemination of it is, given that there had already been cases reported in southern California and Texas," Cordova told a press conference.
Is still not clear when the first case occurred, making it impossible thus far to determine where the breakout started.
Dr. Nancy Cox of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said she believed the earliest onset of swine flu in the four happened on March 28. Cordova said a sample taken from a four -year-old boy in Mexico’s Veracruz State in early April tested positive for swine flu. However, it is not known when the boy, who later recovered, became infected.
The W.H.O raised the alert level to Phase four, meaning there is sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country. Monday was the first time it has ever been raised above Phase three.
Putting an alert at Phases four or five signals that the virus is becoming increasingly adept at spreading among humans.
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