Passengers surprised at lack of flu checks

Published on Monday 27 April 2009 22:52

BRITISH tourists returning from Mexico yesterday said they were surprised not to be given health checks on arrival in the UK.

Many travellers said they faced no questions about symptoms of swine flu or screening either in Mexico or when they arrived back in the UK.

The Health Protection Agency, who are responsible for handling the potential flu crisis, said yesterday that blanket screening would not help to fight swine flu so have decided against the measure.

Sid Cashmore, 50, a self-employed businessman from West Bromwich, was travelling back to London from a holiday with his wife Mandy, 48, and son Greg, 13.

He said: "We were staying two hours from Cancun.

"You wouldn't have known anything was wrong but for the television. There was no mention of it at the resort.

"We thought there might be some screening, but there's been absolutely nothing."

Many other passengers reported that they simply walked off the plane and out of the airport on arrival back in the UK.

However, passengers on one Cancun flight to Gatwick from holiday company Thomson were greeted by a doctor who read passengers a list of symptoms and asked any sufferers to step forward.

Phil Keene, 30, from Peterborough, said: "When our flight landed we all stood up and were told to sit back down again.

"A person came on and was introduced as a doctor.

"We were read a series of symptoms over the tannoy and anyone who had them were asked to come forward – a few people did. The symptoms read out were things like repository problems, headaches and lots of sweating."

A HPA spokeswoman said: "There is no specific screening in place for swine flu – and there are no plans to put any in place – it's not going to help."