NEW DELHI: India has been caught napping on its preparedness for mass screening and treatment of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). Despite several warnings issued by World Health Organisation , it has not been able to ramp up its infrastructure to quarantine international passengers at airports and sea ports. The progress in infrastructure development at the hospitals identified for treatment of Ebola patients is far from satisfactory.

Sources said an expert group appointed by the health ministry to review preparedness has found several lacunae that need to be addressed immediately. It has been found that Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi, which was designated by the Centre for Ebola treatment last month, in addition to Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, does not have personal protective gears like gloves, fluid-resistant gowns and special goggles.

TOI spoke to the medical superintendent of Lok Nayak Hospital, Dr Sidharth Ramji, about this. “The Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) are supposed to be provided by the ministry. We have asked them for the same and a response is awaited,” he said.

Dr Ramji added that the isolation ward in the hospital was created during the swine flu epidemic in 2009. “Ebola requires higher levels of isolation. There are engineering and structural modifications which have to be done and the Public Works Department is working on that,” he said.

RML, health ministry officials said, is the only hospital equipped to treat an Ebola patient at present and the quarantining of suspected cases is being done at the hospitals situated at the Delhi and Mumbai airports.

Unlike swine flu, an airborne infection that turned into a pandemic in the country in 2009, Ebola spreads by direct contact with an infected person’s blood, secretions and other bodily fluids.

According to National Health Regulations, the isolation wards or rooms for Ebola patients should be equipped with negative airflow, so that when a door is opened or closed, the air flows in and not out. Also, the room needs to have an attached bathroom and waste from the patient’s bathroom is required to be disinfected before it enters the sewers.

Sources said that for a highly populated nation like India, strict screening and identification of suspected cases at airports is the only feasible option to check the disease. However, experts said that this is not being done carefully at most airports, except Delhi and Mumbai.

“Thermal scanners are not available at many airports. Also, officials are depending on self-declaration to check the travel history of international passengers, and symptoms, if any, than personal verification due to logistical reasons,” said a health ministry official.

Health minister J P Nadda on Tuesday chaired an inter-ministerial meeting to assess the preparedness levels where, sources said, he ordered the constitution of a three-member expert committee to identify the gaps.