17 members of a delegation of Afcon employees arrived at the national capital from Liberia, on Tuesday.
While 16 of them were acknowledged as "Ebola-free" after they were screened for the symptoms of the virus by the Airport authorities, one member of the delegation was isolated in the quarantine facility at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), in New Delhi, after he exhibited symptoms of the Ebola virus. The man, who was quarantined, had fever and a sore throat, after he landed in the national capital.
The total delegation comprises of 112 Indians and four Nepalese. Many of these people had flown in to different states. These 112 employees have travelled to 19 states after landing in the country. Most of these employees are from the state of Maharashtra (54), with 12, 10, seven, five and four going to West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh respectively. Three delegates each went to Kerala, Odisha and Gujarat; two delegates each went to Karnataka, Haryana and Punjab; while one delegate each went to Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.
The Health Ministry said that the employees were helped by the International SOS (ISOS) Organization, to return home safely. The ISOS had already conducted health screenings of the passengers in Liberia, and informed the authorities in India that none of the passengers exhibited any symptoms of the Ebola virus.
"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 Health Ministry was quoted saying in an official statement, by The Health Site. "The passengers were also screened at the time of exit from Liberia and none of the evacuees had any symptoms prior to travel."
"No case of Ebola virus disease has been detected in India. It is reiterated that it is not an airborne infection (not spread through the air you breathe). A person has to come in very close contact with the blood and body fluids of an Ebola patient to acquire this infection," said the release.
A total of 1,427 people have succumbed to the Ebola virus in the four West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Other than this, 2,615 people have contracted the deadly disease.
