All visitors coming to Viet Nam from the Ebola-hit areas will undergo two rounds of medical examinations to search for signs of Ebola infection, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health said on Monday.

The double check will help better identify suspects of Ebola inflection, Tran Dac Phu, head of the ministry’s Preventive Health Department told Tuoi Tre yesterday.

The ministry will send a document to the Ministry of Public Security asking for coordination in giving two-round checks to those visitors.

And all people coming from the Ebola-hit areas in Africa are required to fill health declaration forms.

Remote temperature sensors are being used at airports to detect those who have fever, a sign of Ebola infection.

Those detected with fever will be isolated while those who go past the machines without fever signs will also have their passports checked again.

In case they left the Ebola-hit areas within 21 days, they will be sent to the airport’s international health quarantine center for another check.

This file photo shows a health worker of the Ho Chi Minh City International Health Quarantine Center operating a remote temperature sensor to monitor passengers' temperatures at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City. (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

At the center, those visitors will be examined carefully for signs of Ebola infection, and all of them, whether having signs of Ebola or not, will be monitored for 21 days from the date they left the Ebola-hit areas.

Such monitoring is necessary as the Ebola virus disease (EVD) has an incubation period of 2 to 21 days, the department said.

Over the past two months, over 270 people from Ebola-hit countries have visited Viet Nam, according to a report from the department.

Of these visitors, about 240 arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, while the remainder flew into Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport.

On last Sunday, a 26-year-old Vietnamese man, Chu Van Chung, suspected of having Ebola after returning to Viet Nam from Guinea and coming down with a high fever, has been confirmed as having malaria, not Ebola.

Ebola is a highly dangerous virus that can kill 90 percent of infected people, the department warned, adding that it is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, bodily fluids and tissues of infected animals or people.

As a severe acute viral illness, EVD is often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, according to the WHO.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on last Friday that there have been 13,567 reported Ebola cases in eight countries since the outbreak began in March in Guinea. There have been 4,951 reported deaths from the disease.

The latest figures show that Liberia has 2,413 deaths from 6,535 cases of Ebola; Sierra Leone has 1,510 deaths out of 5,338 reported cases; and Guinea 1,018 deaths from 1,667 cases.

(Source: Tuoi Tre News)