The UK is to introduce “enhanced screening” of travellers from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa.
Downing Street said that passengers arriving at UK airports and on the Eurostar would face questions about their health and travel history as well as a possible medical assessment.
This move contradicts World Health Organisation (WHO) advice, but comes after calls for screening by the Labour Party and the chairman of an influential Commons committee.
According to research from a group of American universities monitoring the spread of the Ebola around the globe, the UK is the third most likely country outside Africa to “import” the deadly disease due to London’s position as a global transport and business centre.
The screenings come as a further three medical workers have been quarantined in Spain after a nurse became infected with the deadly disease, possibly while removing her protective clothing after cleaning a room where an infected missionary had been treated in Madrid’s Carlos III hospital.
Anxiety about Ebola is also growing in the US after the death of man infected with the disease and the quarantine of a police officer who entered the man’s house without protective clothing.
