Civil Aviation Authority have taken "precautionary measures" to counter the global swine flu epidemic threat, officials said Tuesday. "We have taken precautionary measures at all our international airports to check passengers coming from swine flu affected countries," Pervez George, a spokesman for Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) told AFP.
Doctors from the CAA and the health ministry have been engaged to check incoming passengers and allow entry only to those with no flu symptoms. "Our teams have effectively started functioning from today and are checking every passenger as he or she lands at our international airports," Afzal Bughio, the CAA's chief medical officer, told AFP.
"We have a quarantine facility at Karachi airport while major hospitals in all the big cities are on high alert," Bughio said. Anyone suspected of showing swine flu symptoms would be quarantined, Bughio said. Around two million Pakistanis live in the Americas, Europe and other countries where swine flu epidemic has appeared, visit Pakistan in large numbers every week.
Birjees Mazhar Kazi, executive director of Pakistan's National Institute of Health, said the preventive measures had been taken in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. "Countrywide preventive measures have been taken in response to the global alert by the WHO," he said. "We are constantly in touch with the WHO to get updates on swine flu," he said.