Australia has been urged to follow Thailand, Hong Kong, Nepal and Malaysia by tightening border controls to prevent the spread of Nipah virus. Two cases of the deadly disease were confirmed in West Bengal, India, among healthcare workers. In response, Thailand implemented extra health screenings at major airports for travellers arriving from the region.
Professor Wang Linfa, an expert in emerging infectious diseases at Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School, said Australia should also be collecting contact details for passengers arriving from affected areas. He said: “Not everyone who comes in from India needs to be PCR tested. That would be overdoing it. But the contact information must be current in case someone close to [arrivals] becomes positive.”
Health authorities in India have traced and tested around 200 contacts of the two confirmed patients.
Nipah virus can be spread through direct contact with an infected person or animal, or consumption of contaminated food.
It has been identified as a virus with the potential to trigger a global pandemic, although British experts have stressed this would only happen in the virus mutated significantly to become more transmissible.
The outbreak coincides with the Lunar New Year period when many people travel around Asia. This period is thought to have accelerated the spread of Covid-19 in early 2020.
Prof Linfa told The Australian said that when it comes to travel and testing measures, “we have to assume everyone who gets it gets very sick and dies”.
He added: “Australia has all the tests ready so if you suspect anybody, you test; and if positive, you restrict their movements.”
The Australian Centre for Disease Control on Thursday said it was monitoring the situation.
It told The Australian it was not considering any additional border measures in relation to the outbreak, adding in a statement: “Existing ill-traveller protocols and pre-arrival reporting measures screen for and identify travellers with signs and systems of serious communicable diseases.
“Existing protocols also ensure that any identified ill traveller can be assessed quickly and referred to jurisdictional health authorities, where appropriate.”
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