The use of airport scanners to detect fever occurred in several countries during the H1N1 pandemic last year, as well as the 2003 epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which killed 800 people before its spread was stopped. Therefore, if there is a threat of rapid spread of the infection, some experts recommend that flight passengers be screened for the first symptoms of the disease, the most typical of which is fever. Otherwise, sick people can appear again in any country in the world within a few hours.

According to researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, USA), scanners that work at a distance of 3 to 6 steps (1-2 meters) are much more reliable at diagnosing the presence of fever than a regular survey of people for their symptoms of acute respiratory infections. including fever.

When evaluating the three infrared thermal systems used in the emergency rooms of the specialized airport departments, the researchers concluded that FLIR and OptoTherm reliably detect a high body temperature. These results were published in the online issue Emerging Infectious Diseases of October 13, 2010.

During tests of three systems in emergency rooms, it was found that the frequency of reliable determination of high body temperature compared to interviews with people for their fever was significantly higher (90% vs 75%). In addition, the authors note that people, for fear of flight delays, may lie about the presence of a symptom of fever.

According to the results of the study, two devices were recognized as the best - the ThermoVision A20M thermal imager and the FLIR Systems Inc. infrared camera. In addition, OptoTherm Thermoscreen, created by private groups OptoTherm Thermal Imaging Systems and Infrared Cameras Inc., Sewickley, Pennsylvania, has been found to be fairly accurate.

The third instrument from the North Carolina-based Palmer Wahl Instrumentation Group was not as accurate at detecting fever. The remaining three scanners did not meet the criteria for testing.

The expansion of transportation possibilities, coupled with the movement of large numbers of people, inevitably leads to the spread of infectious diseases, which can literally reach anywhere in the world in a day.

As fever is a characteristic sign of many infectious diseases, its quickest and clearest diagnosis is the main component of all screening events.