Ircon® and Raytek® Infrared (IR) Systems Offer First Line of Defense That Can Help Identify Elevated Skin Temperature

SANTA CRUZ CA, USA — Fixed infrared scanners and thermal imagers from Raytek/Ircon, as well as handheld IR thermal imagers from its parent company, Fluke, can be used at airports, terminals, hospitals, schools, factories and public gathering areas to identify people with elevated temperatures resulting from an infectious disease, such H1N1 influenza A (aka, “Swine Flu”).

Individuals who register a fever can then be isolated for further evaluation to help prevent the spread of disease. continue reading »

Thermal imaging can detect elevated body temperature, one of the signs of the H1N1 virus (swine flu).
Ft Meyers FL, USA — As concern continues to mount about the spread of the swine flu globally, airport authorities are responding by using digital thermal Infrared imaging technology to scan passengers.

Thermal imaging can detect elevated body temperature, one of the signs of the virus H1N1 (swine flu).

“Medical thermal imaging at airports and any other locations where the public congregate targets individuals who are already symptomatic and likely to be infectious,” says Peter Leando, Ph.D., Managing Director of Meditherm.

Meditherm’s thermal imaging system is one of the only digital thermal imaging scanners designed specifically for the human body giving the airport authorities the accuracy that they are looking for to identify infected passengers traveling from country to country.

The company’s medical thermal imaging systems are in use at airports in Aruba, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Oman, the Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

The highest risk for the geographic spread of infection is through travel and “seeding”. Thermal imaging of travelers has several benefits:
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USA (Opinion) — Yesterday came the report that India will join a growing number of countries installing IR Thermal Cameras at airports to screen for possible flu carriers.

We reported earlier about Thermal Camera installations in Australia, Bulgaria, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

(You can bet your bippie that the ones in China, Japan, Singapore and others have been trotted out, dusted off and placed back in service, if they were ever out-of-service)

Why doesn’t the USA have a similar policy? Is anything being done about it except diverting a few aircraft for one or two ill passengers? We haven’t heard or seen any reports and there’s precious little about efforts to thwart flu spreading from passengers arriving from Mexico

Yet while US authorities were apparently ignoring the airport screening issue, the big news yesterday was school children need no longer stay home for fear of H1N1 flu.
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Scanning Passengers for Swine Flu

While the Australian news reports:“Swine flu detection scanners ‘not perfect’”, in the same online report today they said:

“Scanners have been rolled out across international airports in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Cairns, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin, to help authorities ramp up their defences against the disease.”

It was also claimed that while scanners had been in use for about 36 hours fewer than 100 had been detected, and five of those were swabbed for testing.

“Three of those were asked to keep themselves in isolation at home.”

From Turkey comes the article yesterday (30.04.2009) entitled:
Thermal camera placed at Istanbul airport to prevent swine flu

ANKARA, April 29 (Xinhua) — A thermal camera was placed at Ataturk international airport Turkish largest city of Istanbul to measure the body heat of passengers entering Turkey, local press reported Wednesday.

Similarly the online ArabianBusiness.com website said on Wednesday:
Saudi installs thermal cameras at airports

Saudi Arabia has announced plans to install thermal imaging cameras at all airports to try and identify anyone entering the country who may be infected with swine flu.

…
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