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Ebola: are thermal scanners effective prevention tools or just a placebo?
Devices meant to detect high body temperatures as a clue for infectious diseases may prove more reassuring than effective
The Guardian
Jessica Glenza in New York
10/2/2014
How does a financial services conference expecting thousands of attendees coming into the US from more than 130 countries try to keep participants safe from Ebola? It takes their temperature.
Sibos, a gathering of financial experts being held in Boston this week, emailed attendees on Monday, before the disclosure of the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the US, to inform them that it would, in addition to its typical metal detectors, be employing “thermal scanners” at each entrance to the conference “to detect elevated body temperatures and possible infectious diseases”.
The idea behind using these scanners, most models of which look like a smaller version of the radar guns police use to catch speeding motorists, is that they can detect people who have a fever, one of the symptoms of Ebola, as well as many other infectious agents.
This kind of screening has long been used as part of the response to outbreaks like Ebola, Sars and influenza. People flying out of the West African countries where the Ebola epidemic is currently centered have their temperatures taken before boarding, and if it is elevated, they are tested for the virus.
Whether doing this – and especially by way of these scanners – is effective is another matter. Some researchers have called the scanners reassuring, and not much more.
Checking body temperature isn’t a sure-fire way to find individuals infected with Ebola. People can carry the virus for up to three weeks before showing symptoms, and are not contagious during that period. The patient in the US case, Thomas Eric Duncan, was reportedly asymptomatic when he travelled from Liberia to Dallas.
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View the complete article, including photo, at:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...ective-placebo
Devices meant to detect high body temperatures as a clue for infectious diseases may prove more reassuring than effective
The Guardian
Jessica Glenza in New York
10/2/2014
How does a financial services conference expecting thousands of attendees coming into the US from more than 130 countries try to keep participants safe from Ebola? It takes their temperature.
Sibos, a gathering of financial experts being held in Boston this week, emailed attendees on Monday, before the disclosure of the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the US, to inform them that it would, in addition to its typical metal detectors, be employing “thermal scanners” at each entrance to the conference “to detect elevated body temperatures and possible infectious diseases”.
The idea behind using these scanners, most models of which look like a smaller version of the radar guns police use to catch speeding motorists, is that they can detect people who have a fever, one of the symptoms of Ebola, as well as many other infectious agents.
This kind of screening has long been used as part of the response to outbreaks like Ebola, Sars and influenza. People flying out of the West African countries where the Ebola epidemic is currently centered have their temperatures taken before boarding, and if it is elevated, they are tested for the virus.
Whether doing this – and especially by way of these scanners – is effective is another matter. Some researchers have called the scanners reassuring, and not much more.
Checking body temperature isn’t a sure-fire way to find individuals infected with Ebola. People can carry the virus for up to three weeks before showing symptoms, and are not contagious during that period. The patient in the US case, Thomas Eric Duncan, was reportedly asymptomatic when he travelled from Liberia to Dallas.
.................................................. ....
View the complete article, including photo, at:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...ective-placebo