By Anastasia Ustinova
April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Russia began screening all air passengers arriving from the Americas for symptoms of swine flu after an outbreak of the virus killed at least 20 people in Mexico and spread as far as New Zealand.
The Health Ministry assigned medical teams to board planes arriving from North and South America and conduct visual examinations of all passengers and crew, Gennady Onishchenko, head of the ministry’s Rospotrebnadzor inspectorate, said on state television today. No cases of the flu have been reported in Russia, Onishchenko said.
“Thank God, there are no direct flights from Mexico,” Onischenko said, adding that private flights are also being screened.
-snip-
The cabins of aircraft landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport are disinfected upon arrival and unused meals are destroyed, said Anna Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the airport, by telephone. Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo’s cross-town rival, is undertaking similar measures, said Irina Gorbunova, a spokeswoman.
“We learned the drill during the outbreak of bird flu,” Zakharova said, referring to outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza that has killed millions of birds in Russia in the past four years.
2 comments:
Chinese authorities have begun destroying and vaccinating poultry after an outbreak of bird flu was discovered in the east of the country, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday.
James, we need a link to a story in order to corroborate it. Thank you.
Post a Comment