A new ‘gun’ in town

Levi Mukarati
Deputy News Editor

For many locals, an “iconic” image of the coronavirus outbreak first appeared at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.

It was the image of a Government official wearing a face mask and latex gloves.

Strikingly, the official brandished an unusual small “white pistol” aiming the forehead of each inbound and outbound traveller.

The small gadget, described as an infrared thermometer or thermometer gun, got many people thinking: “How on earth does it work?”

The majority of people should be forgiven for assuming it is capable of detecting the coronavirus, others have simply shown that they do not know what technology they have been exposed to.

From the airport, this device, which triggers ominous reactions from its subjects, found its way to other ports of entry and exit such as Beitbridge, Chirundu, Nyamapanda and Forbes border posts.

Ever since the beginning of the 21-day national lockdown last week, the thermometer gun has become an instant hit.

It is proving to be a “status symbol” for those “honoured and tasked” to administer it to screen people for fever, which is the fine line of defence in preventing the spread of the deadly virus.

It has been deployed at most entrances to supermarkets, hospitals, hotels, pharmacies, apartments, Government and private offices.

Selected individuals, most of whom have no medical training backgrounds, “confidently” direct the gadget at people’s foreheads.

But how does this thermometer gun work?

According to online sources, the thermometer gun is equipped with an infrared sensor, which can quickly measure surface temperature without making any contact with a person’s skin, as with traditional clinical thermometers.

The device inhibits skin contact and possibility of virus being passed to other people.

It has become an important health tool and in recent years has been used in countries scrambling to contain viral outbreaks.

The thermometer gun became popular in efforts to slow the spread of other notorious viruses such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China after 2000.

It was to resurface in West Africa, a decade later, to curb the deadly Ebola outbreak.

And again, after nearly another decade, the thermometer gun has resurfaced on a large scale.

In theory, thermometer guns, as well as more complex cameras that can also measure the heat coming off a person, allow local officials to quickly determine who may have a fever and isolate them for further testing.

Chinese-based company Alcin Medical is listed as one of the world’s largest manufacturers of thermometer guns, producing 2,5 million pieces annually.

The company’s general manager, Mr Mo Yingchun, is reported as saying: “Typically, the company’s thermometers are used indoors to check temperatures on babies.

“The thermometer guns are used only for quick screening… It was a small industry (making the thermometers), and if it weren’t for the outbreak, it will not be put in the spotlight.”

The thermometers have been effective in screening people for coronavirus, which has so far been confirmed in more than a million people around the globe.

Fatalities have since risen to more than 50 000.

But for all of its powerful sensing technology, some experts believe the thermometer gun has not been ultimately the most effective defence mechanism.

They argue it is overrated.

According to medical officials and experts on infrared devices, like the surgical masks that have become ubiquitous in countries battling the coronavirus pandemic, thermometer guns must be administered in carefully controlled healthcare settings.

They argue the infrared thermometers determine temperature by measuring the heat emitted from the surface of a person’s body, and that is where the problem lies.

“Often, those wielding the tools do not hold them close enough to the subject’s forehead, generating unusually low temperature readings, or hold them too close and get a high reading,” says Dr James Lawler, a medical expert at the University of Nebraska’s Global Centre for Health Security in a recent interview with The New York Times.

“The measurements can be imprecise in certain environments, like a dusty roadside, or when someone has taken medication to suppress a fever.”

But the advent of hi-technology has never assured people of fool-proof gadgets.

Margins of error are irrefutable and the thermometer gun has been a wonder insofar as temperature screening is concerned during this period.

For real, those wielding the devices at various building entrances and checkpoints countrywide have become admirable personalities.