Suspected SARS infected Ghanaians heading home from Japan

Emergency Response Team was on Wednesday deployed at the Kotoka International Airport, when reports filtered through that two Ghanaians suspected to be suffering from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) were arriving there.

However, when the Egypt Air flight MSA-178 on which the two, Nana Twaana Amoako, 37 and Lykiaama Asabea, 27, were supposed to be travelling touched down at 0815 hours on Wednesday they were not on board. The plane carried 38 passengers and crew.

A State Official told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the two Ghanaians were quarantined in Cairo.

Among the officials at the Airport were the Minister of Health, Dr Kweku Afriyie, Top Management of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Immigration Officials, Customs, Excise and Preventive Service; Port Health as well as doctors from the 37 Military Hospital, who were all in protective masks.

It took about 20 minutes before the gangway was moved to the entrance of the plane and two health officials in full protective gear entered the plane to identify the two persons so as to quarantine them.

They, however, returned to say that the two men were not on board. The passengers were then allowed to disembark.

A source told the GNA that the information on the supposed arrival of the two SARS infected persons was contained in a dispatch the Ghana Mission in Cairo sent to Accra. The Egyptian Authorities had passed on the information to the Mission.

Speaking to the GNA, Dr Afriyie said although the two suspected SARS carriers were not on board the plane, the exercise at the airport showed that Ghana was well prepared to handle such an emergency.

Meanwhile GNA had observed that many passengers arriving at KIA from the Far East where the virus is most virulent, come through Southern Africa, where their airlines have easy flight connections to Beijing and Hong Kong.