NEW DELHI, November 28: The government has asked the travellers arriving to India from Ebola-affected countries to carry a certificate stating that there is no evidence of the deadly virus in their body fluids, after a person cured of the disease was found to be carrying the virus in his semen.
In case people having been discharged after being treated for Ebola do not have the certificate from the health ministry of the country concerned, they have been advised not to travel to India for a period of 90 days from their discharge, health minister JP Nadda told Lok Sabha on Friday.
The ministry of external affairs has issued the advisory to the Indian embassies in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Dakar (Senegal), Abuja (Nigeria), Accra (Ghana) and Niamey (Niger) on November 21 after a person returning from Liberia was quarantined at the Delhi airport.
The man had contracted Ebola there and was cured of it, the ministry had then said, but his semen reported positive for the disease. Health ministry officials had said body fluids at times carry virus post-treatment.
“All passengers travelling from Ebola-affected countries or who have undergone treatment for Ebola have to produce a certificate from the ministry of health of the country that there is no evidence of virus in his/her body fluids,” Nadda said, quoting the advisory.
