dengue testing

A friend told me that people could now be tested for dengue fever by using a hand held electric scanner. After an initial concern (being a pbo holder) I decided 'no way'.

It turns out that the scanner detects elevated body heat, & then people are tested the usually way. Which will probably mean using more of pbo's tests (yippee).

Here's a full text I found about it, if you are interested:
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Fever screening trial at Cairns airport
Date: 21/02/06
By Roberta Mancuso



Scanners which can detect fevers such as 'flu, dengue and malaria will be trialled at a far north Queensland airport from as early as next month in an Australian first.

Two thermal infrared scanners, similar to those used at Asian airports at the height of SARS epidemic in 2003, will be used at Cairns International Airport to screen incoming passengers.

The scanners, which are the size of a handheld video camera, have been purchased by the federal Department of Health and Ageing as part of a national management plan for pandemic influenza.

It would be the first time such equipment has been trialled at an Australian airport for the detection of fever.

John McBride, Professor of Medicine at James Cook University (JCU) in Cairns, said scanners at airports could help to prevent or delay the entry of pandemic influenza and other diseases such as the mosquito-borne malaria and dengue fever.

"The sorts of things that we predict will come into a place like Cairns would be malaria and dengue and perhaps other more exotic diseases," Prof McBride said.

"We know that each time a dengue epidemic occurs in the north Queensland region it's brought in by an international traveller in some way."

There are occasional outbreaks of dengue in north Queensland. Almost 700 people were infected in 1993 in one of the worst.

About 1,000 imported malaria cases are reported each year in Australia, despite being declared free of the disease in 1981.

The National Health and Medical Research Council has allocated more than $165,000 to fund the six-month Cairns trial, which could start as early as March.

JCU, Queensland Health and local GPs will participate.

Prof McBride said the scanners worked by triggering an alarm when a person with an elevated body temperature walked past.

Up to seven health workers would be employed to monitor the scanners and pull aside those who were sick.

They would then be assessed on the spot and advised to visit a GP, with some reimbursed the cost of medical treatment.

"It shouldn't slow the flow of people down and it's the subject of ongoing negotiations at the airport as to exactly how and where they're positioned to minimise any disruption to normal passenger arrivals," Prof McBride said.

He said based on other studies, around one in 1000 passengers would be expected to have a temperature.

But Prof McBride said the scanners could not help wipe out fever-related illnesses like dengue given its incubation period.

"People who've been bitten by a dengue carrying mosquito will be perfectly well for about four or five days, and if they fly during that time they won't be picked up by this sort of screening," he said.