The Ministry of Health (MoH) suspended plans to install a remote sensor at Bole International Airport, sources disclosed.

The appliance was supposed to be installed at Bole Airport to ensure that people infected with Swine Flu did not cross the checkpoints of the country's major international gateway.

In mid April 2009, the Ministry and the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise planned to install the device to detect the disease in passengers on incoming flights when the flu was spreading rapidly throughout the developed world.

"We have decided to hold the plan [to install the device]," Ahmed Emano, head of Public Relations Directorate at MoH, told Fortune.

The incubation period of the virus is two to three days; so it is unlikely for the person infected with the virus to develop any of the symptoms including high fever, which is actually what the appliance detects. However, the incubation period makes it difficult to detect the virus early with the device.
 

Swine Flu developed into an influenza type identified in the medical world as AH1N1. Symptoms include fever, nasal congestion, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea; the last two happen in rare cases, according to the World Health Organization.

If a person, with high fever, takes medication, while on the plane, the fever is eliminated. This factor makes it difficult to identify the influenza with the detector, according to Ahmed.

"These medical realities would make it difficult for the precautionary moves to keep the virus from entering the country," Ahmed explained.
 

Nevertheless, authorities were working on bringing the device into the country, after looking at the experiences of other countries; especially during the early days of the breakout.

Most countries obtained the machine without waiting for the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations and specifications. In such cases the global health organization sets standards for the devices, according to Ahmed.
 

"When we made our request, the WHO replied that it has not set any standard for the device," he told Fortune.
 

However, the Ministry of Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI) set up a temporary quarantine at the Airport to treat people infected with the disease. Two weeks ago, the team in charge of this operation confirmed two cases of the virus in the country.

"We have checked five people who had contact with the two infected people. We also checked the 87 passengers who were on board the same plane they [the infected people] flew in from the US," Ahmed told Fortune. "There had to be a lot done to identify the passengers."

The two infected individuals, 16 and 17 year-old students have been treated and have joined their families four days later.

Ahmed's Ministry and EHNRI have also managed to bring in Tamiflu, one of the possible medicines prescribed for influenza types like Swine Flu. The medication was donated by WHO. Had it been purchased, it would have cost approximately three million dollars.
 

The amount and type of medicine in stock, sufficient to treat 100,820 people, has already been distributed among 30 selected hospitals throughout the regional states, including the Tekur Anbessa (Black Lion) and St. Paul's in Addis Abeba.

With the latest but significantly smaller consignment of the WHO donation, the amount of the medicine in stock is sufficient to treat 104,000 people.

Otherwise called Oseltamivir Phosphate, Tamiflu is an oral antiviral drug used to treat uncomplicated influenza and is now available in Ethiopia.  Zanamivir, Amantadine and Rimantadine are the other possible treatments for the influenza. 

By HILINA ALEMU
FORTUNE STAFF WRITER