Hong Kong advises PIA

[inducedrag]

http://www.dawn.com/news/1056494/hong-k ... y-measures

[Dr747]

What a bag full of S**t. Total B****ks. One the letter, if its true, is factually wrong! PIA should sue the authority in concern for liable. Also the analysis is totally wrong by the journalist.
Points that are wrong. One Malaria can show up after the arrival also only way to diagnose this condition is by making thick and tin blood films. Also it does not spread through personal contacts so anyone with malaria does not pose any threat to anyone else. Thirdly, what's the point of talking about Polio, if china have immunised their population then anyone with polio should not be their problem either!
and once again just total TOSH...

[huma]

I was wondering myself if this was all a load of rubbish since malaria is not contagious. You get it by being bitten by a mosquito.

[Abbas Ali]

A mosquito after biting a person infected with Malaria can transmit the disease when it bites a healthy person.

Seems the Hong Kong authority as a precautionary measure advised PIA to fumigate the aircraft that operated the flight to kill Malaria infected mosquitoes (if any) present on that aircraft to prevent spread of disease among passengers and flight crew travelling on that aircraft.

Here's excerpt from a document related to this issue on World Health Organization (WHO) website.

Why aircraft disinsection?

A serious problem is posed by the inadvertent transport of live mosquitoes aboard aircraft arriving from tropical countries where vector-borne diseases are endemic. Surveys at international airports have found many instances of live insects, particularly mosquitoes, aboard aircraft arriving from countries where malaria and arboviruses are endemic. In some instances mosquito species have been established in countries in which they have not previously been reported. A serious consequence of the transport of infected mosquitoes aboard aircraft has been the numerous cases of ‘‘airport malaria’’ reported from Europe, North America and elsewhere. There is an important on-going need for the disinsection of aircraft coming from airports in tropical disease endemic areas into nonendemic areas. The methods and materials available for use in aircraft disinsection and the WHO recommendations for their use are described.

Source & For Further Reading: http://www.who.int/bulletin/archives/78(8%29995.pdf

Abbas

[huma]

oh ok Abbas Bhai - I didn't know that.

[Dr747]

A mosquito after biting a person infected with Malaria can transmit the disease when it bites a healthy person.

Seems the Hong Kong authority as a precautionary measure advised PIA to fumigate the aircraft that operated the flight to kill Malaria infected mosquitoes (if any) present on that aircraft to prevent spread of disease among passengers and flight crew travelling on that aircraft.

Here's excerpt from a document related to this issue on World Health Organization (WHO) website.

Why aircraft disinsection?

A serious problem is posed by the inadvertent transport of live mosquitoes aboard aircraft arriving from tropical countries where vector-borne diseases are endemic. Surveys at international airports have found many instances of live insects, particularly mosquitoes, aboard aircraft arriving from countries where malaria and arboviruses are endemic. In some instances mosquito species have been established in countries in which they have not previously been reported. A serious consequence of the transport of infected mosquitoes aboard aircraft has been the numerous cases of ‘‘airport malaria’’ reported from Europe, North America and elsewhere. There is an important on-going need for the disinsection of aircraft coming from airports in tropical disease endemic areas into nonendemic areas. The methods and materials available for use in aircraft disinsection and the WHO recommendations for their use are described.

Source & For Further Reading: http://www.who.int/bulletin/archives/78(8%29995.pdf

Abbas

Technically speaking this is a different issue from the one discussed in the newspaper. News item is about a passenger with malaria. Depending upon the type of mosquito and malarial organism, the incubation periods range from 7days to 12months. So the passenger would have contracted malaria, at least, days before the flight. The life cycle of malarial bugs inside the mosquito is still considerably longer than the flight from Pakistan to HK! It is, therefore, quite important for PIA to put the record straight within the legal means.
"Airport malaria", off course, is well recognised due to the transported mosquitos but that could be on any flight not just the one with a malarial patient.

[Abbas Ali]

The PIA aircraft was Airbus A310-325ET registration AP-BGR, according to following news report.

PIA management has not yet provided to Hong Kong's department of health with the certificates whether it has disinfected its Airbus A 310 (APBGR) or not which operated PK 892 last year on October 11 on which Hong Kong authorities had detained a malaria patient.

'The port health inspector of Hong Kong's department of health has been asking the management of PIA since December last to provide them with few documents, but to no avail. It was regarding a passenger who was found suffering from malaria while on board at Pk-892 that reached Hong Kong on October 11, 2013,' said the source.

They wrote to PIA management on December 14, 2013, to provide them with a scanned copy of the work sheet/job card/disinfection certificate regarding the disinfection done on the said aircraft (registration number APBGR) after October 11, 2013 for their record.

'They also asked for the flight schedule of the aircraft APBGR if it is coming to Hong Kong in February-March this year again for follow up inspection,' added the source.

And yet again they reminded the PIA management on February 5 this year to give them the said documents and information. 'Failing to receive any response from PIA, they once again asked for the said documents last week. It is feared that PIA's indifference to this issue would result in a ban on the airline to enter Hong Kong,' added the source.

Source: http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-eco ... 9/1173229/

Flights recently operated with AP-BGR can be found on following link:

http://www.flightradar24.com/reg/apbgr

Presently, PIA is not operating flights for Hong Kong.

Abbas