Special Report: Ebola screening starts in UK

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Heathrow and Gatwick begin screening passengers for Ebola symptoms this week. Ian Taylor reports

The Ebola crisis touched Britain this week as screening began of passengers entering the UK from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the countries worst affected by the virus.

More than 4,000 people had died of Ebola and 8,300 cases been confirmed at the start of this week. Europe saw its first case of transmission, in Spain, and its first death, in Germany, of a UN medical worker infected in Liberia.

The first death in the US last week was followed by confirmation of the first case of transmission in the country – of a hospital worker.

Screening at Heathrow, Gatwick and the Eurostar terminals in London and Kent will match procedures introduced at New York JFK airport at the weekend, with passengers from the affected region questioned, assessed for any symptoms and their temperatures taken.

The measures were introduced first at Heathrow Terminal 1, with Border Force officers identifying passengers, and nurses and consultants screening them.

Screening was due to extend to Terminal 2 on Wednesday and to the other entry points by the end of the week. US airports New York Newark, Chicago, Washington and Atlanta were due to follow JFK also by the end of the week.

The UK move came after the government initially said entry screening was not recommended.

Exit screening has been in place at airports in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since early August. The man who died in the US, Thomas Duncan, had contracted the virus in Liberia, passed through exit screening and flew to the US via Brussels.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) insisted he posed “zero risk of transmission” to other air passengers.

However, British Airways suspended flights to the region in August, saying it had to ensure the safety of crew.

Abta head of destinations Nikki White said: “Anything that limits risk is sensible, but it needs to be balanced. These things don’t come without challenges.”

White said: “We’re in regular dialogue with health authorities to get the most up-to-date advice for members, and we’re in talks with the UK Border Agency and tourist boards so we can give people balanced information. We have to take a balanced view of the media headlines.”

The World Health Organization has warned it could take nine months to bring the outbreak under control.

Ebola: what we know

• The Ebola virus is largely untreatable.
• It is caught from the blood, vomit or faeces of an infected person.
• There is no evidence of airborne transmission – by coughs or sneezes.
• The people most at risk are health workers, family members and those handling the bodies of Ebola victims.
• The virus remains dangerous on contaminated surfaces for several hours, so these require thorough cleaning.Carers require full protective clothing and help in removing this safely.
• The WHO reports all cases so far have resulted from “direct close contact with symptomatic patients”. It states: “Speculation that Ebola might mutate into a form easily spread among humans is unsubstantiated by any evidence.”
• The affected countries are poverty stricken and their limited health-care systems have been overwhelmed. Sierra Leone and Liberia have between a quarter and a fifth of the hospital beds they need. That has allowed the virus to take hold in the kind of slums common in 19th?century Britain when cholera and TB were mass killers.