Thermal scanners missing at airport

Authorities say machines that can detect passengers with symptoms of H1N1 virus are not required, as medical team has thermal guns

Thermal scanners missing at airport

Authorities say machines that can detect passengers with symptoms of H1N1 virus are not required, as medical team has thermal guns

Pune faces a grave problem. The city has reported 55 confirmed cases of swine flu, but the Lohegaon airport is still not equipped with thermal scanners. The scanner detects the rising body temperatureu00a0 (36.8u00c2u00b0C is considered normal) and the camera attached to it sounds an alarm and clicks a photograph of the passenger.

Airport Director Captain S K Mahajan told MiD DAY, "The medical team at the airport is equipped with thermal guns. When a person comes close to the guns, it detects the body temperature. Pune is different from Mumbai.
The latter has got a huge traffic and therefore requires thermal gates." He added that the medical team at the Lohegaon airport can detect patients who show symptoms of swine flu.

Pune has incoming flights from Dubai three days a week and from Frankfurt six days a week. Nearly 100 passengers from Dubai and 15 per cent from Frankfurt alight in Pune. Sources from the airport said, "All passengers are thoroughly screened."

Preventive action
Meanwhile, a control room to tackle the increasing cases of swine flu has been set up. Seven more cases of the deadly H1N1 virus were registered yesterday. Six of them are students. On Saturday, state education minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil announced a committee to tackle the virus. The committee headed by Machindranath Devnikar, additional commissioner, PMC, has advised citizens to avoid international travel. It has said people returning from foreign countries should be quarantined for 10 days and if they show symptoms of the virus, they should get admitted to Dr Naidu Hospital.

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