A US team has visited the Dhaka international airport to check Bangladesh's preparations to prevent the fatal Ebola virus from entering the country, reports bdnews24.com.
Airport officials said that the team comprised US embassy officials and experts of the US Centre for Disease Control working in Bangladesh.
Prof Be-Nazir Ahmed, director of Bangladesh's Centre for Disease Control who accompanied the team Wednesday, confirmed to the news agency their enquiries regarding airport arrangements.
The US team's visit was prompted by the concern of the authorities there about the spread of the deadly virus, especially after it slipped into the US despite tough health guidelines.
The first reported case of Ebola in a Texas health worker has raised questions about how the US medical guidelines aimed at preventing Ebola spread were breached.
The health worker contracted the virus while treating a Liberian, who died of the disease in Dallas last week.
"It made them (US authorities) worry," Prof Ahmed said, "They think if the virus can find a place in the US, then it can spread to anywhere in the world.
"They have their citizens in Bangladesh, and their concerns are valid. But we showed them our preparations at the airport. They are happy to see our arrangements," he said.
The current Ebola outbreak that WHO termed an international health emergency is the worst outbreak on record and has killed 4,447 people so far, mostly in West Africa's Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.
The first case was reported in Guinea in March.
But travel restrictions on infected people and the absence of direct air links with the affected countries made the chances of the deadly virus reaching Bangladesh "a remote possibility".
Concerns, however, mounted after recent media report saying six people, who came back from Liberia, walked through the airport without any screening.
Prof Ahmed said the men had been traced and were found to be healthy.
They had returned to Bangladesh from Liberia by travelling through Morocco and Algeria, in the absence of any direct flight from Liberia to Bangladesh.
"Almost all countries have suspended international flights to Liberia after the outbreak," he said. "They left Liberia by road and took a flight to Dhaka from Algeria".
"They said their temperature had been measured at the airport," he said.
