Prague, March 17 (CTK) – Travelling poses a much higher risk of spreading dangerous infections in the Czech Republic than migration, Czech health care experts told reporters yesterday.
People can catch dangerous diseases during a trip abroad and then bring the infection home, Hana Rohacova, head doctor of the infectious diseases clinic of Prague’s Na Bulovce hospital, and Frantisek Stejskal, from the society of infectious disease medicine, said.
“No migrants, but travelling poses a major risk of importing diseases,” Stejskal said.
According to Rohacova, the migrant wave does not threaten the Czech Republic with a spread of infections. “We are really not threatened with the migrant wave,” she said.
The number of refugees in the Czech Republic is very low.
People without valid documents whom the police detain are sent to special refugee detention facilities where they undergo medical check-ups.
Mainly “economic immigrants” are heading for the Czech Republic, primarily from the neighbouring Slovakia, other EU countries and Ukraine.
Czech tourists usually bring a dangerous infection to the Czech Republic from abroad, Stejskal said, pointing out the case of measles in the Usti region, north Bohemia, in 2014. The source of the infection was a man who returned from India.
The Czech Republic has a detailed plan for the case of a hazardous infection, in which the whole integrated rescue system is involved.
The Na Bulovce hospital has a special ward with three “bio-boxes” for four people.
“The centre is permanently on alert, 24 hours a day. It can be activated within 60 minutes,” Rohacova said.
An exercise to test its operation takes place every week, she added.
Last year, the hospital experts admitted 12 patients with various risks of infection. The most serious case was a suspicion of Ebola contracted by a man who returned from Liberia. However, the infection was not proved.
The specialised care for the patients who may have been infected with a dangerous disease is very costly. The samples are sent to Berlin for an analysis and the results are available within a few hours. A protective outfit with all equipment for health care personnel, for a single use only, costs up to 30,000 crowns.
($1=24.450 crowns)
