79 Indians return from Liberia, screened for Ebola

New Delhi/Mumbai: Seventy-nine Indian nationals, who have been brought back from Ebola-hit Liberia, were Tuesday screened for the deadly virus after their arrival at the airports here. All of them were found healthy.

Of the 112 Indians in Liberia, 66 landed in Mumbai and 13 landed in New Delhi. No passenger was put in isolation.

"The passengers were also screened at the time of exit from Liberia and none of the evacuees had any symptoms prior to travel," said the medical director of International SOS which brought back the Indians.

International SOS is a group that provides medical assistance, healthcare and security services to organisations with international operations

A statement from the health and family welfare ministry said: "Senior officers of the ministry have been pre-positioned at the Mumbai and Delhi airports to monitor the screening of these passengers from Liberia."

The ministry said that as per guidelines, the high risk category (those with symptoms) are isolated at the airport, medium risk category (those giving history of contact with an Ebola case) are prioritised for active surveillance, and low risk category (those without symptoms and without any contact history) are informed about helpline numbers to be contacted in case they developing symptoms subsequently.

"State governments have been requested to do rigorous tracking and monitoring of these passengers. The concerned states have been alerted for follow-up of these passengers on daily basis," the ministry said.

Earlier, an official from the Terminal 3 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport said: "No Indian carrier has reported any passenger with suspected Ebola symptoms landing at the IGI.

"These passengers are mostly travelling on international carriers from west Africa and interchanging at global hubs in Europe or Middle East before heading back to India," he said.