A day after the first Ebola case was reported in India, Health Minister J P Nadda ON Wednesday said arrangements similar to the one at Delhi airport, which helped detect the virus in a man returning from Liberia, have been put in place at 24 airports and stressed the situation was under "complete control".
The detection of the virus in the 26-year-old man, who reached here on November 10, was a result of "extra caution" shown by the government, he told reporters.
"Due to its extra caution, the Health Ministry tested body fluids of the man even after his blood tested negative for Ebola. I want to say the situation is under complete control. We have similar arrangements at 24 airports across the country," he told reporters.
The tour and medical history of passengers are being checked at airports, he said.
The man will remain quarantined at a special facility at Delhi airport so long as medical reports confirm that he is completely rid of the virus.
The ministry had said the man was already treated for the deadly disease in the African country and carried no symptoms but tests of his semen samples were positive, prompting authorities to put him under isolation.
In the first case of Ebola in the country, an Indian national returning from Liberia was tested positive for the deadly virus on Tuesday and has been quarantined at a special facility at Delhi airport.
"It is not an Ebola case, he is an Ebola-treated patient who is negative in blood but whose body fluid is positive. He has no symptoms," the official said, declining to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Peter Piot, a former WHO official who was one of the discoverers of the virus, has in the past expressed concerns about the disease spreading to India. There are nearly 45,000 Indian nationals living in West Africa.
Many experts say densely populated India is not adequately prepared to handle any spread of the highly infectious haemorrhagic fever among its 1.2 billion people. Government health services are overburdened and many people in rural areas struggle to get access to even basic health services.
Hygiene standards are low, especially in smaller towns and villages, and defecating and urinating in the open are common.
The current outbreak of Ebola is the worst on record. It has killed at least 5,177 people, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, according to the latest figures from the WHO.
(With agency inputs)
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