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A REVIEW BY Ireland’s health watchdog has found mass thermal screening at airports is ineffective in limiting the spread of Covid-19.
The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) today published two summaries on the best available evidence on the use of thermal screening to effectively identify cases of the disease in passengers.
Mass screening programmes using non-contact devices like infrared thermal scanners were not found to be effective in identifying infectious individuals and limiting spread of disease. Hiqa said detection rates were consistently low across studies.
Dr Máirín Ryan, Hiqa’s deputy CEO and director of health technology assessment, said thermal screening has been used in other respiratory infectious disease outbreaks, such as the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic in Asia and Australia, to improve detection and reduce the time to isolation of infected individuals.
“It typically involves a combination of fever screening, such as temperature testing, alongside self-reporting of exposure risk and or symptoms,” she explained.
“However, the evidence clearly shows that this type of test is likely to be ineffective in limiting the spread of Covid-19. Thermal screening is noted to be high cost and resource intensive. Detection rates are very low due to a large proportion of cases that have no symptoms, are infectious before showing any symptoms or who do not present with fever.”
Hiqa identified 11 primary studies, three rapid reviews and one systematic review relating to Covid-19 and other respiratory virus pandemics. All studies were conducted in the context of points of entry such as airports, so the watchdog said their relevance to other community settings such as schools is uncertain.
The authority has also updated its evidence summary on the immune response and potential immunity following infection with Covid-19 and other human coronaviruses.
Dr Ryan said it remains unclear whether long-term immunity to SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes the Covid-19 disease – is possible.
“SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG (immunoglobulin G) antibody was detected in nearly all individuals up to three months after they were infected, and over 90% of patients had developed a neutralising antibody response, which protects against viral infectivity,” she said.
“However, a handful of new studies suggest that it may be possible to be re-infected with SARS-CoV-2. HIQA will continue to monitor the evidence on immunity and update our summary as required.”
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Cambodia regarded by some as third world have a 72h pre arrival negative test requirement. Plus test at airport and confinement at hotel until result, normally within 24 hours. If negative then you go and quarantine for 14 days but are tested again a few days later. You want in you pay for all expenses. We on other hand give a form out and hope you might consider 14 days quarantine!! Cambodia has zero cases internally but a 243 in total caught at the airports. We have 26,000+ and no airport testing ?
@Dave Phelan: só what do you suggest?
@Minamino: the government to get their finger out….
@Dave Phelan: it really and truly is that simple, if this virus is such a serious threat economivcally to the stae then the resorces to do these tests should be forthcoming
committee of TD,s recommended the screening via thermal imaging ( temp tests), which goes to show there is far too much politicak interfernce around our strategy, if there even is one
the WHO say the ultimate way to stop the spread is by effective testing
why are our Gov not being held to account on this, rather than they screaming from the roof top about wet pubs and masks!!?
@Kavsie: to myself….and whomever,apologies for typo,s
@Kavsie: agreed, we all want and need the country to reopen somewhat. This will not happen without action on governments north and south of the border.
@Minamino: I’d imagine since he wrote it clearly with numbers and all, to maby look at what Cambodia is doing and follow suit. But that’s just a guess!!
@Dave Phelan: I would like to vouch for Vietnam as well while we are mentioning Cambodia. Temperature scanners were in place even before Singapore recorded cases. After Wuhan was first reported the authorities were wise to set up a plan before cases even started there. Any Countries with cases had respective citizens scanned in the airports before visa checks. The only reason there are even cases in Vietnam now is because of an illegal Chinese smuggling ring that has been heavily punished since the cases appeared just over a week ago.
I was shocked arriving in Dublin and still having no temperature checks or masks used during the initial lockdown phase. That we still have no temperature checks 6 months from the lockdown shows that the government have failed to get the finger out with regards international travel.
@Olivia Smith: may draw pictures for him too by the looks of it!
@JKtucker: thank you
@Dave Phelan: totally agree it’s part of a layered approach. nphet and our health authorities seem to be looking for a magic bullet that doesnt exist. at least if you were screening. testing and follow up testing you could control incoming infections.
@Paul Cunningham: did you read the article? It just says temp checks don’t work.
@Dave Phelan: Yes the government here has really struggled to bring in any form of effective border measures. Running a report on what can be readily accessed by most people is bonkers instead of actually taking some action. They’ve got the balance completely wrong on this with the internal lockdown measures also.
I just got my IGG back and positive although negative for IGM. I do wonder are the tests reliable though . The only time I was really ill was in early December which is interesting.
@Isabel Oliveira: I was the same. Really sick after Christmas and took months to come right again. Energy zapped. If it was around then I certainly had it
@Macca Attack: My mom was the exact same, she couldn’t function for the month of december and honestly didn’t have any real energy until February, naturally we thought it was the flu but it was the worst “flu” I had ever seen
@Aaron O’Leary: I ended up in hospital with clots and atrial fibrillation after 1 month of what was very similar to the flu but not quite the flu . I didn’t want to fret with hospital as they’re busy but I will ask can they double check blood samples and chest X-ray if still stored.
@Isabel Oliveira: Ouch thats terrible! Hope you’re doing alright now. Yeah I’m 100% convinced it was widespread here in December, seen so many people absolutely destroyed by. what we all thought was the flu at the time.
@Isabel Oliveira: I felt I had it in mid December after a trip to Manchester.
I was extremely ill with all the symptoms we now know as covid. I needed an inhaler for the first time in my life.
Took me months to shake it. Still not 100%
Italy has shown it was in the country since 2019 by testing the sewage network.
@Huey: That 100% sounds like you had it. Even speaking to nurses they were saying they had one of the worst “flu” seasons they ever saw during the winter.
@Isabel Oliveira: how do you get the IGG test? Can your gp send you for it?
@Isabel Oliveira: Has to have been circulating here since December. My housemate was off work and back and forth to the doctor for three weeks before Xmas with what she though was a really bad flu and was put on two lots of antibiotics. However she became really worried when she started getting breathing difficulties and had to be put on an inhaler to help. The doctor at the time said it was very unusual. I then got sick about a week after her with the same symptoms, albeit slightly milder than her.
@Isabel Oliveira: IgG are longer lasting immunoglobulins than IgM, IgM is produced during and infection and doesn’tllast as long, it tails off after a few weeks to a few months.
Since you were IgG positive, you very likely had SARS-COV-2, though there’s a small (<1%) chance it was false positive for HCov-NL63, a ccommon cold virus that might produce a false positive results.
Immunoglobulin M (IgM): Found mainly in blood and lymph fluid, this is the first antibody the body makes when it fights a new infection.
Immunoglobulin (IgG): This is the most common antibody. It's in blood and other body fluids, and protects against bacterial and viral infections. IgG can take time to form after an infection or immunization.
So IgG is the long lasting immunoglobulin.
@David Jordan: That said, about 40% of COVID-19 infections are completely asymptomatic, and given you were last ill in December, it is far more likely the positive result was due to asymptomatic illness after Dec, near the peak of the outbreak.
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-what-proportion-are-asymptomatic/
Its like that masks, no no no…
Then….. ‘erm actually yes we must…
@MickN: Masks is the government reacting to the Media hysteria…
The response to this virus is a great example of how NOT science works. I heard a lot of “well we didn’t know before, but that’s is scientific process”. Well, not really, what we are using is not scientific process but a panic process.
What we in science do, is carefully report our research, get it peer-reviewed, implement in a controlled environment, scaled it up to a small environment, and then, if we are really luck, we implement it in large scale. I have been doing this for 40 years.
The response to this virus is a classic case of panic process… Media scare people, people beg for government to save them, government ask scientists to give something, scientists tell “sorry but that’s what we got”, government says “good enough, I need to show I’m doing something”, the plan doesn’t work, media scare people, people beg for…
@Tony Garcia: ya had me til I noticed that lovely red and blue elephant beside your name and well, let’s put it this way; you forgot to flush after you put up that post. Hope you at least washed your hands.
@Tony Garcia: And where did you get your PhD in epidemiology and virology? Was it the university of Facebook or YouTube?
@Tony Garcia: ‘What we in Science do…..’
According to your profile you are an engineer.
Not everyone who has Covid-19 experiences a temperature. I certainly didn’t have one and I had only mild symptoms. A migraine and itchy eyes.
@Elaine Houlden: but some do! It’s just another layer of protection , obviously, it’s not the total solution !
So ironic given security for scanning bombs etc in airports has also found to be ineffective. Temperature checks should be there just like banning liquids just because it creates a culture of ‘we’re taking this seriously.’ No one measure will stop COVID, no one measure will stop climate change, no part of a helicopter can fly by itself. People need to stop finding reasons to do nothing and look at countries that are doing better than we are.
For the love of god, random Covid test passengers and temp check everyone, anyone with a temp Covid test them, how is that so difficult for them to come up with.
@Malachi Shanks: People can take a paracetamol or ibuprofen to get rid of a fever so its pointless temperature testing.
It is ridiculous that people can entre the country without any testing, the rule should be , everybody is tested and if you don’t like it stay at home , keeping business closed and people out of their jobs is madness when those traveling into the country can so without consequence.
@conriel: agreed. I know someone who will be travelling into the country for family reasons and getting proof of a negative test before coming for her own peace of mind. She will quarantine upon arrival but would also like to get tested (and would pay for it) a few days after arriving – as far as I know this is not available without symptoms.. really think it should be..
CEO of Irish Cancer Society on 150,000 pa plus a car but you can’t get an answer the phone.
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