Infrared System Screens Singapore Arrivals

SINGAPORE, April 17 -- An "infrared fever screening system" now greets passengers arriving at Changi airport from southern China and Hong Kong, two areas hardest hit by the SARS virus, Reuters reported yesterday.

The thermal-imaging thermometer, which automatically checks the temperature of air travelers as they step off the plane, is Singapore's latest weapon in combatting SARS.

"Walking through the sensor generates a heat-sensitive image. A burst of red dots on a computer screen depicts a fever and nurses stand ready to whisk passengers away for further tests," the Reuters article said.

The system, built by government-backed Singapore Technologies, was originally designed for military use.

Singapore officials told Reuters that Changi plans to install eight more walk-through heat sensors next week to screen passengers arriving from other SARS-hit regions including Canada, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The officials said the system doesn't slow the progress of disembarking.

"You just walk by it, and if you have a fever a red light will be beam," Albert Tjoeng, a spokesman at the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, told Reuters.

For more information, visit: www.reuters.com