While the Indian health officials are on high alert on Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is dealing with a hurdle of not being able to contact all the passengers returning from the Ebola affected countries.
The BMC claims that it is getting faulty contact details of these passengers even after they wrote to the airport authorities and state health officials on the same.
"As a matter of protocol, we are given the contact details of the passengers returning from Ebola affected areas to Mumbai. We are suppose to keep a tab on these passengers for 21 days (the gestation period of Ebola virus). However, with the faulty contact details, we are unable to keep tab on these people," said Dr Mangala Gomare, head of the epidemiology in BMC.
Dr Gomare informed that so far they have received a list of 380 passengers with a travel history to the Ebola affected countries. Out of the 380 passengers, the civic body has managed to contact only 42 passengers. "On a daily basis we are informing the state health officials regarding the faulty contact details. But we are still receiving incomplete contact details. In some cases the there is no contact number, while some have wrong number. Some passengers are not responding to our calls. We are taking short telephonic interviews to find out if they are showing any Ebola symptoms," said Dr Gomare.
The Ebola outbreak, which is presently restricted to four West African nations (Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria), has claimed over 1,000 lives. Mumbai doesn't have a direct flights to these nations but three airlines —Emirates, South African and Ethiopian Airlines operate transit flights to Mumbai through these nations.
Airport Health Organisation (AHO) which falls under the ministry of health is presently looking into the suspected Ebola virus infection patients, was unavailable for comment.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has issued its anti-Ebola plan last week and identified eight hospitals that will have 10 beds each for any suspected patients. In Mumbai, the BMC has designated its Jogeshwari Trauma Hospital and Kasturba Hospital for quarantining Ebola virus suspects.
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