The UK should expect a “handful” of Ebola cases in the UK in the coming months, Jeremy Hunt has warned.
In a speech to the Commons, the Health Secretary said that the public health risk from Ebola in the UK “remains low”, but announced the introduction of screening for travellers coming to the UK from affected countries such as Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Passengers from such areas will have their temperature taken as they arrive and will be asked to fill out a questionnaire about the current health, travel history, and potential contact with Ebola-infected individuals.
Screening will be implemented at Heathrow starting tomorrow, and it will be expanded to Gatwick and Eurostar next week.
Hunt went on to say that alerts have been sent to all medical workers in recent months, describing the Ebola symptoms to watch out for, and that emergency services are carrying out comprehensive tests to make sure they are operationally ready if they are required.
The Health Secretary also described the procedures put in place to deal with potential cases of Ebola, saying:
“All ambulances are equipped with personal protective equipment (PPE). If a patient is suspected of having Ebola they will be transported to the nearest hospital and put in an isolation room. A blood sample will then be sent to Public Health England’s specialist laboratory for rapid testing.
“If they test positive for Ebola they will then be transferred to the Royal Free Hospital in north London, which is the UK specialist centre for treating the most dangerous infectious diseases. We also have plans to activate Ebola bed capacity in Newcastle, Liverpool and Sheffield, making a total of 26 beds available in the UK.”
The possibility of an Ebola vaccine was also raised during the speech, with Hunt commenting that the UK government, alongside the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council, has co-funded clinical trials into a possible vaccine to the deadly disease.
Meanwhile, the UN has declared the outbreak in west Africa and international public health emergency after 4,033 people have died from the disease, with 8,399 cases confirmed of suspected across seven countries. The number of people infected with the disease is currently doubling every three-to-four weeks.
Hospital staff treating Ebola-infected patients in both the US and Spain have become infected with the disease, raising fears about the procedures put in place to contain the outbreak have not been sufficient.
