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DOWNING STREET HAS confirmed that travellers arriving at UK airports and Eurostar terminals from countries affected by Ebola will be screened for the deadly virus.
A spokesperson said that the UK “is continuing to monitor the outbreak of Ebola closely, including the protection of the UK against people travelling here who may be infected”.
Airport screening at airports in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea has been in place for some weeks to ensure all passengers leaving affected countries are checked.
In a statement released this evening, the British government said: “Enhanced screening will initially be implemented at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports and Eurostar terminals and will involve assessing passengers’ recent travel history.”
The screening will also check who they have been in contact with and onward travel arrangements as well as a possible medical assessment, conducted by trained medical personnel rather than Border Force staff.
Passengers will also be given advice on what to do should they develop symptoms later.
Keith Vaz, head of the parliament’s home affairs select committee, said: “I think targeted screening would help and if it discovers just one case it would make a huge difference.
The announcement follows public pressure in the wake of the Ebola case in Spain.
The Spanish infected with Ebola is at “serious risk” of dying from the disease after her condition worsened today, officials have said.
Teresa Romero helped treat two elderly Spanish missionaries who died after returning from west Africa with Ebola in August and September. She tested positive for the disease on Monday.
Madrid regional president Ignacio Gonzalez told parliament that the woman is “at this time very ill and her life is at serious risk as a consequence of the virus”.
A spokeswoman for the La Paz-Carlos III hospital where Romero is being treated told reporters earlier: “Her clinical situation has deteriorated but I can’t provide more information,” because of the express wishes of the patient.
The world is on high alert amid fears that the worst epidemic of Ebola in history could spread from west Africa, where it began late last year. It has killed nearly 3,900 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
A number of media outlets have been reporting that a British man died from suspected Ebola in Macedonia. However, local media is reporting that this is not the case. Czech media has also been reporting that a man was hospitalised due to suspected Ebola in Prague.
Earlier today Thomas Frieden, director of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said that AIDS is the only thing he has seen in his 30 years of experience that is comparable to Ebola.
Additional reporting: AFP
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Serious stuff, preparation seems to be the key, how well are we prepared?
Poorly I’d say
We kept out foot and mouth..
Did it occur to any of you to bother CHECKING what our plans were before concluding we have none or that they’re crap?
We have a 118 page VHF – Ebola plan
We have an airlocked national isolation unit
We have stockpiles of protective equipment including full PPP/CBRN suits
We have 1m+ stocks of various antiviral drugs for supportive treatment including their pediatric preparations
We have protocols in place for dealing with people and plans for contact tracing for who they came into contact with.
Go look up the plan yourself google ”The Management of Viral Haemorrahagic Fever in Ireland”
Ryan it’s a pastime for many to mock Ireland at any given opportunity. As you point out, we are prepared and we have dealt adequately and professionally with previous scares.
Those who pointed out, this was a cause for great concern, were mocked/jeered, accusations of hysteria & panic. The actual hysteria & irrationality was the lack of urgency/alarm to recognise the threat, especially in a western society with a pathological self-flaggellating need to prove it’s sainthood through multiculturalism, mass immigration, self-regarding pious 3rd world volunteerism. It is only a matter of time, before those who want our nations/borders secured, are proved right once again, this time with regard to ebola. It seems western governments are intent on spreading this far &wide.
my instincts tell me that that comment will get voted down on this tread. it makes too much sense.
20 day incubation period……
They might as well be screening for a wet fart… ….
So funny
If they started screening at the check in desks of Ryanair then symptoms should show by the time the people get to the plane.
Screening will be mainly to calm public fears. With the twenty day incubation period screening in a reasonable time is impossible.
It’s 21 days, and you’re not contagious until you are showing symptoms, and by the time you are showing symptoms if you are coming from Africa you are gonna be racing to a hospital pretty quick not wandering the streets contaminating people.
No unprotected sex for three months for those that come around from being infected by Ebola.
Three month window period.
http://www.freep.com/story/life/wellness/2014/10/09/ebola-virus-sexual-transmission/16962607/
Screening will not prevent Ebola reaching the UK or Ireland. The incubation period is too long.
Also it’s worth noting that the death rate in Africa will be 60-70%, while it will be 10-20% in Europe. This will create an incentive for people with the virus to try to reach Europe at all costs. Airports need to be very vigilant.
Where’s Joe Jacob and his iodine tablets when you need him!
For the younger ones among you and don’t remember, Google is your friend!
Or as Marian Finucane summarised Joe Jacob’s approach to crisis management – “Put your head between your legs, and kiss your ass goodbye!”
Would it be more advantageous to check people before they get onto planes.
This is a good idea & hope Dublin & Shannon airports will fellow the suit. It seems Ebola is unstoppable.
Not just the airports….boat and ferry ports too!
We also don’t want any disease ridden soldiers passing through Shannon.
Enda was on the news earlier saying that we are well equipped in Ireland to deal with the Ebola virus. He couldn’t even finish the sentence without muddling his words. Didn’t fill me with confidence.
Nor me Brian.
It’s not Enda writing the plans guys it’s full time disaster planners and medical professionals.
We don’t need to do checks at Shannon there are no flights from Africa coming to IReland, the UK are doing it because they have 100s every day coming through from Africa.
Fact!
Ryan Carroll .
US military traffic into Shannon could come from any corner of the world including infected parts of Africa..
Up to 20 day incubation period.
A country that couldn’t even organise a few concerts will be well able to handle something as minor as a Ebola epidemic, sure we’ll be grand.
Fair enough however I wouldn’t imagine MCD will be asked for their input here though!
Why don’t they carry out checks before they get on the plane and infect others?
Read the piece again. They do.
They do exit screening at the airports in the affected countries as well. They DO NOT infect anyone on the plane unless others come into contact with their body fluid, you can’t get it that way it’s not airborne.
Ebola can be spread on a plane by sneezing, particularly because of the close proximity of other passengers.
What about the lorries coming from France?
If they can’t stop asylum seekers what chance do you think they have spotting carriers of a disease with a twenty day incubation period?
It’s a man made diease..Africa is a testing ground..stop transporting people from places that have it..that makes it spread..contain the problem..but maybe certain people want a different outcome..
Your tinfoil hat will protect you.
nothing will protect us..what will happen will happen..
You have more chance of dying from flu that kills millions every year worldwide but don’t let that stop you! It’s not airborne.
It’s like the gardai knew the Ebola virus was on the way and jumped ship at the passport check! Conspiracy ?…..I think not
I’m in Marrakesh at the moment and talking to locals you can feel a real fear about this disease spreading, some think it may already have but is not publicised. It has also led to some local suspicions of travellers from countries to the south coming into Morocco.
I hear the government are upping the VAT on lucozade and 7up…sorted lads
I’m based in Heathrow, my company only recently pulled flights from Sierra Leone and Liberia but this still doesn’t particularly reassure people like myself and my colleagues who have to work front line!!!!
But at least it’s something!
Common sense prevails, hopefully our Government won’t be long introducing the same precautions.
Iit is all just optics.. Won’t do much to stop the onslaught. The horse,stable door etc.
Unless screening means taking every passengers blood, sending it away to a lab for testing, wait a couple of days for the results and then you may enter the country, this will not work.
Exactly. Screening will only work on people who are already showing symptoms.
Worth noting that the man who died in the US developed symptoms 7 days after arriving back.
I remember this guy on ‘the late late show’ must have been 20 years ago or more talking about the ebola virus!!!
How is this gonna help it has a 3 week incubation period.
Because some people on a plane may have it and could be caught and stop further infection.
They don’t just check your temp they check where you’ve been coming from , if you’ve been in an affected area, were you in direct contact with an infected person etc
This way they can trace back if any of those people became symptomatic, aslo if someones getting off the plane with a fever they can blood test them and stop them spreading it.
You’re only contagious when you are showing symptoms.
But there could be still people on the plane that has it and they don’t know. This doesnt make sence to me the same way there sending over soilders to contain it is that not going to make the spread worse by them catching it and bringing it home. Madness
commonsense
6 hours ago
If they can’t stop asylum seekers what chance do you think they have spotting carriers of a disease with a twenty day incubation period?
They could stop”asylum seekers” if they had the will, Australia has stopped them.
Finally, a sign of intelligence…
one of the last biggest killers in Europe was the Spanish flu..that wasn’t so long ago..
Ebola is a man made virus and Africa is the testing ground. Sure the government’s don’t care if a few hundred thousand people die at least the pharmaceutical corporations will make billions of it and share it with the bureaucrats. I am sure everyone here knows that 90% of Medical, chemical and nuclear waste from Europe and USA is dumped into Africa. While the fertile African lands are bought by the corporations here for their own farming.
Thank you
I assume we are prepared???????
Oh sweet Jesus.
The idiocy here is unbelievable.
Screening would have made no difference in the Spanish case. The person the nurse caught it from was being brought to Spain precisely because he had Ebola and was being brought home for treatment.
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