ISLAMABAD: A counter has been established at the Islamabad airport to scan passengers coming to Pakistan from African countries for the symptoms of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
Members of the Pakistani peace missions returning from the African countries on chartered flights would be checked in the aircraft, sources here say. Moreover, people coming from three countries of West Africa - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - will be scanned for 21 days after their arrival in their native areas to ensure they were not affected by EVD.
EVD has become endemic in Africa with the fatality rate of up to 90 per cent. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads through human-to-human transmission.
The symptoms of the disease include fever, weakness, muscular pain, headache and sore throat. These are followed by diarrhoea, vomiting, impaired kidney and failure of liver functions. In some cases, both internal and external bleeding also starts.
According to health exports, Ebola virus spreads from close contact, sexual transmission, through saliva and blood transfusion.
The virus has lots of similarity with that of HIV/AIDS but it is more dangerous than HIV. The incubation period for HIV is almost 10 years but that for Ebola it is just a week. However, the method of transmission is the same. Ebola attacks the nerves system. INTERNEWS
