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Airline to screen passengers
17/03/2003 08:52 - (SA)
Hong Kong - Hong Kong's flagship airline Cathay Pacific said on Monday it would screen all passengers for flu symptoms amid a pneumonia outbreak that has laid low 42 people in the territory.
With alarm spreading about the disease, which is believed to have claimed at least nine lives worldwide, the airline said it had ordered staff in all countries not to allow check-in for any passenger showing signs of the illness.
Cathay Pacific has already had one passenger fall ill with respiratory problems onboard a March 6 flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver, Canada.
Two tourists returning from Hong Kong to Canada died of pneumonia earlier this month, and other cases are believed to have been exported from the territory to Singapore by airline passengers.
Cathay Pacific principal medical officer Dr John Merritt said in a statement: "Air filters on aircraft remove many of the droplets and particles that are responsible for spreading infection. Nonetheless, it is important for passengers who appear to be ill to be denied boarding and referred for medical assessment."
The airline's action comes after five more Hong Kong hospital workers were struck down on Sunday by the pneumonia outbreak.
Forty-two doctors and other medical staff were being treated for pneumonia on Monday at Hong Kong's Prince of Wales Hospital. Four of them were in intensive care with one in very serious condition.
Five people died last month in southern China from pneumonia, and an American-Chinese man who flew to Hong Kong from Hanoi with pneumonia died Friday morning. A Vietnamese nurse who treated him in Hanoi's French Hospital died Saturday.
The pneumonia outbreak is unusual in that it appears to strike a high number of doctors and medical staff despite high precautions being taken against infection when treating patients.
The World Health Organisation on Saturday declared the outbreak a global health threat. - Sapa-DPA
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