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Bali airport on alert over mpox
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Passengers are seen at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Badung regency, Bali, on April 7, 2024. (Antara/Ni Putu Putri Muliantari)
B
ali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport is on increased alert over the mpox virus, which the World Health Organization has declared a global public health emergency.
Airport authorities have installed three thermal scanners in international arrivals as they focus on disease prevention.
Handy Heryudhitiawan, the airport’s general manager, said on Wednesday he had coordinated with the Denpasar Health Quarantine Agency.
Should the airport operator find any passenger showing indications of mpox infection, the airport operator will coordinate with the health quarantine agency for further medical treatment.
“Passengers with mpox symptoms will first be isolated in the airport clinic at the airport's international terminal area, before being taken to hospital for further examination," Handy said.
As of Wednesday, the airport operator had yet to find any visitor with mpox symptoms, he added.
Separately, Denpasar Health Quarantine Agency chief Anak Agung Ngurah Kusumajaya said screening would be conducted of all passengers from abroad.
“Passengers detected with body temperatures higher than 37.5 Celsius will undergo further examination," Kusumajaya said.
Mpox cases and deaths are surging in Africa, where outbreaks have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda since July.
The disease, caused by a virus transmitted by infected animals but passed from human to human through close physical contact, causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.
While mpox has been known for decades, a new more deadly and more transmissible strain, known as clade 1b, has driven the recent surge in cases.
Clade 1b causes death in about 3.6 percent of cases, with children more at risk, according to the WHO.
Formerly called monkeypox, the virus was discovered in 1958 in Denmark in monkeys kept for research.
The DRC has reported more than 16,000 cases and 500 deaths this year.
On Aug. 15, Sweden reported the first confirmed clade 1 case outside Africa. (dre)
