Coronavirus disease-2019: is fever an adequate screening for the returning travelers?

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Infectious Diseases
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization on January 30, 2020.
• The virus rapidly spread globally from its origin in Wuhan, China, necessitating effective containment strategies.
• Body temperature screening at points of entry, like airports, is a common but potentially flawed method for detecting infected travelers, especially in resource-limited settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of body temperature screening in identifying travelers with COVID-19.
• To highlight the challenges posed by asymptomatic transmission and symptom concealment in travel screening.
• To recommend alternative or supplementary measures for preventing the importation of COVID-19.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of reported cases and transmission patterns of COVID-19.
• Review of the efficacy of symptoms-based screening, specifically fever detection.
• Consideration of asymptomatic contact transmission and false negatives in screening.

Main Results:

• Body temperature screening may fail to detect individuals incubating the virus or those concealing fever.
• Asymptomatic carriers can transmit COVID-19, bypassing symptom-based detection methods.
• Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is identified as a reliable diagnostic tool.

Conclusions:

• Travel restrictions and quarantine measures are recommended to prevent COVID-19 importation.
• Relying solely on fever screening is insufficient for controlling the international spread of COVID-19.
• RT-PCR testing is crucial for accurately identifying both symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 infections in travelers.