TIA Health Desk to be hugely modified

TIA Health Desk to be hugely modified


(Kalpana Poudel)

Kathmandu, Feb 15: An international-standard 'health desk' that was established within Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) following an outbreak of the Ebola virus in African countries is to be repaired and modified. The Gorkha Earthquake in April 2015 inflicted damages to medical equipment meant for the desk.

The World Health Organisation is to provide monetary aid of Rs 3.5 million to the Epidemiology and   Disease Control Division under the Department of Health to upgrade the TIA health desk.

The desk was set up targeting foreign air passengers entering the country via TIA in the aftermath of the Ebola epidemic in the Africa.

The desk was established by the government bearing in mind the risk of the probability of its infection in the country from tourists mainly from the affected countries. 

 

Division's Director Dr Bheem Acharya said the Department decided to mend the desk with the realization that the TIA health desk must be effective. Acharya said the TIA health desk will render services in a largely modified form and the delivery of quality services will be focused.

A thermal scanner camera installed at the entry zone targeting passengers was also damaged by the earthquake. This camera casts a focus on forehead of the passengers arriving from abroad and measures their body temperature.  If body temperature of any passenger is above the normal range, he/she will be called to the desk for further consultations and checkup.

Five health professionals including the health assistant, senior auxiliary health worker and a health assistant have been deputed around the clock to handle the desk. To date, the District Public Health Office, Kathmandu mobilizes staff on a rotational basis to run the desk.    But Director Acharya now sees the need of creating separate government posts to look after the desk.

Such types of desk has been set up along the Nepal-India border points in Kakarvitta of Jhapa, in Biratnagar (Rani customs office), Rasuwagadi, Kanchanpur (Gaddachauki), Bhairahawa (Belahiya) and  Nepalgunj (Jamunaha). RSS

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