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Volume 27, Issue 141, November 2023

Infectious disease control at an international airport: Ebola virus mock drill

Ayman Samman¹, Rajaa Al-Raddadi², Fahd Qumri¹, Ahmed Hassan^1♦, Wael Alzhrani1, Osama Alghamdi¹, Abdullah Alsahafi³, Hamoud Algarni⁴, Yasser Bakhsh⁴, Zahir DaffaAllah⁴, Elsayed Elshafey⁵, Mohammed Felimban¹, Tariq Aljoiher¹, Anas Albaloshi¹, Hamad Alhelali¹, Zyad Saad¹, Rafat Abushanab¹, Mohammed Alghamdi¹, Faisal Ageeli¹, Sultan Alraqqas⁴, Fahad Aljoni¹

¹Health Surveillance Center at King Abdul-Aziz International Airport in Jeddah/Ministry of Health, Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
²Department of Public Health/King Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
³Jeddah Health Affairs/ Public Health Department, Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
⁴Ports administration/Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
⁵Medical Fakeeh, Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
Health Surveillance Center at King Abdul-Aziz International Airport in Jeddah/Ministry of Health, Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Introduction: International air travel is now a significant factor in transmitting public health threats, such as the Ebola virus. Thus, airports have become the first line of public health defense for many countries, and authorities have organized public health response plans to identify infectious cases and process them appropriately. Methods: To maximize the speed and efficiency of infectious disease detection and response, the health surveillance center at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has formulated response measures that operate at three levels. The responders involved carry out regular drills to practice the screening, isolation, transfer and disinfection processes involved. Results: This paper describes a practice drill with the scenario of an Ebola case arriving at the airport. The study provides an analysis of the drill outcomes and recommendations for good practice. The drill highlighted the importance of participants’ roles and it achieved its objective of increasing airport stakeholders’ awareness of current public health threats. The need for better coordination and communication was among the shortcomings the drill helped to identify. Conclusion: The drill review presented here highlights the need to maintain health professionals’ knowledge of, and confidence in responding to, international transmission of infectious disease. This requires stakeholders to share knowledge. Respondents with non-medical backgrounds can learn much about contagious diseases from medical teammates, but this paper also identifies learning opportunities for clinicians. Careful planning, particularly of a safe route within the airport, is critical.

Keywords: Mock drill, airport, infectious disease