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No Ebola case reported in India so far: Harsh Vardhan

by IBNS 27 Aug 2014, 12:47 am

News Delhi, Aug 27 (IBNS): Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has said that there is no suspected case of Ebola in India so far, reports said.

“We are carefully screening all passengers coming from Ebola-hit countries at the airport itself and there has been no suspected case of Ebola in India as of today,” Vardhan said in Indore.

Adequate precautionary arrangements were made both at the Delhi and Mumbai airports to screen as many as 112 stranded Indians who arrived from Ebola-infected Liberia on Tuesday. Only one person, who was suffering from a sore throat and fever, was kept quarantined in Delhi.

Sources said the aircrafts, carrying passengers from and around Liberia, were first taken to a remote bay after landing where all the passengers had to undergo a screening process at the step-ladder exit. The passengers without Ebola symptoms were cleared and immediately shifted to the main terminal for immigration and customs clearance.

The passengers had been screened in at least three other countries as well, such as  - Liberia, South Africa and United Arab Emirates or Ethiopia where the flights had halted before they landed in India.

But those with symptoms suggestive of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) were shifted directly to the designated hospital in ambulances from the bay. Sources said Ethiopian Airline, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Jet Airways and South African Airways carried these passengers to Delhi and Mumbai.