Airport authorities on Monday assured that strict monitoring and documentation on arriving passengers are being maintained in the country’s airports, especially now that certain areas in the United States (US) are affected by a flu epidemic.

Airport quarantine physician, Dr. Edgar Maala, said that while the World Health Organization has not yet issued health alert advisories related to the reported epidemic, the health of incoming passengers are being monitored and documented at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Maala said that airport is strictly maintaining the use of the thermal scanning for incoming passengers and flight crew as well.

The NAIA quarantine personnel, he said, is working closely with the Manila International Airport Authority in implementing precautionary measures to assure the public that the epidemic will not threaten the country.

Similar precautions are also being observed in international airports all over the country, Maala added.

He encouraged airport employees, being frontliners, to have flu vaccine as a preventive measure.
Meanwhile, the Philippine government on Monday said that no Filipinos have been affected by the flu that has been spreading across the United States in the past month.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said that the Department of Foreign Affairs has yet to receive reports about any Filipinos being affected by the epidemic there.

“Our embassy and consulate officials are in touch with the [Filipino-American] community and will be monitoring the spread of this illness in the area,” he said.

“We expect our compatriots in the US to avail themselves of the medical services in their area, including having themselves vaccinated to get protected from the flu,” Hernandez added.

US has one of the largest concentrations of Filipinos either working, or permanently living there.

Reports said that the flu outbreak is the worst case that the United States had in recent years.

About 7.3 percent of the deaths last week, the reports also said, have been caused by either pneumonia, or the flu.

Europeans are also suffering an early flu season, though a milder strain predominates there. China, Japan, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Algeria and the Republic of Congo, have also reported an increasing number of flu cases.