Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III visited the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Wednesday to check all the procedures being implemented by airport authorities to prevent the entry of passengers infected with the swine virus and determine if they were adequate.

Duque personally inspected the thermal scanners set up at the arrival concourse where arriving passengers pass through before the immigration area.

Dr. Edgardo Sabitsana, chief of the Bureau of Quarantine at the NAIA, assisted Duque at the scanning booth and explained to him how the thermal scanner is able to detect passengers with body temperature higher than 37.2 degrees centigrade.

The screen shows passengers with normal body temperatures in gray while those with high temperature are shown in orange/red, Sabitsana said.

Duque was also briefed by officials of the Bureaus of Customs and Immigration on their collective efforts in preventing the entry of possible virus carriers.

Customs Collector Thess Roque disclosed that they are keeping a tight watch on passengers arriving from affected countries by performing rigid examination on belongings which may contain contaminated meat.

According to Roque, all intercepted meat products will be turned over to the Animal Quarantine for proper disposal.

Teody Pascual of the Bureau of Immigration said that they will exclude any incoming foreign passenger whom Quarantine personnel will suspect of having the virus.

Duque has earlier ordered the Bureau of Quarantine (BQ) to be strict in checking for symptoms of flu among inbound passengers from countries affected by the swine flu.

The Philippines remains swine flu free but Duque said the possibility of the virus reaching the country is not improbable and local authorities must work double time to institute measures to manage possible cases of the deadly flu strain.

"The best measure that countries should carry out is to make sure that you have proper scanning of inbound travelers, people who come from Mexico and other affected countries," Duque said during the fourth Asia-Pacific Biosafety Association conference held Wednesday.

Meanwhile, two senators called on the government Wednesday to develop an improved animal health technology to address the possibility of potential viruses from affecting the public such as the dreaded swine flu virus.

Sens. Loren Legarda and Richard Gordon said the government needs to do more to improve human health and implement rational actions to deal with the swine flu problem which is now considered a global concern.

“Let us refocus our resources and efforts on things basic and fundamentals, like safeguarding the health of our people and developing a world-class animal science and genetics,” Legarda said.

Also last Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap directed the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) to step up its surveillance work by closely monitoring the health conditions of animal handlers and other people in close contact with swine farms.

Yap issued the directive following Tuesday’s meeting of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) at Camp Aguinaldo in which it was established that the so-called swine influenza problem now buffeting Mexico, the United States and Canada is no longer an animal-health issue but a human-health problem.