[ 2014-10-12 ]

Ebola will come to London, warns Boris Johnson
Ebola will almost certainly hit London, Boris
Johnson has warned.

The Mayor of London said he feared the disease,
which has claimed more than 4,000 lives world
wide, would come to Britain.

Airport screening, introduced for passengers from
Ebola-hit African countries, is “far from
perfect” without blood tests, he warned.

"I have no doubt, I have little doubt that
eventually there will be a case of Ebola in this
country and probably in this city."

He added: “The idea of screening it at airports
is far from perfect as a solution."

"It's one of those cases where we are at risk of
seeming to promise stuff that doesn't really make
any sense. You can't blood test everybody coming
into the country."

The comments follow a warning from Dame Sally
Davies, the government's Chief Medical Office,
that cases will hit Britain.

“It will not be surprising if we have spillover
into this country so I would expect a handful of
cases in the next few months," she said.

The Government has introduced the screening of
passengers arriving at Heathrow, Gatwick and the
Eurostar terminal in an effort to spot anyone
displaying symptoms of the disease.

Teams equipped with thermal guns will take the
temperatures of passengers from Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Guinea, asking them a series of
questions about their possible exposure to the
virus.

As part of the UK effort to help contain the
outbreak, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Argus, a
medical ship, is being loaded with supplies in
Falmouth ahead of a mission to Sierra Leone.

The UK is sending 750 Ministry of Defence
personnel to help Sierra Leone’s government cope
with the crisis, including more than 200 military
staff to run and staff World Health
Organisation-led Ebola training facilities in West
African country.

On Saturday paramedics in protective suits took
part in a major exercise at key locations around
the UK on Saturday to test whether Britain is
ready to deal with a potential outbreak of Ebola.

As part of the exercise potential Ebola victims
were transferred to specially prepared hospital
facilities to test the ability of staff to respond
to the crisis without placing themselves at risk
of infection.

In one of the staged scenarios a shopper who fell
ill at a shopping centre in Gateshead was
transferred to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, in
Newcastle, and placed in isolation.

After initial blood tests ruled out malaria,
samples were rapidly sent to PHE Porton Down for
testing. Following the diagnosis of Ebola, the
patient was transferred to the Royal Free Hospital
in London.

The Royal Victoria Infirmary, PHE and Ambulance
Trust also simulated tracing the patient’s
movements and known contacts.

The virus causes fever, diarrhoea and vomiting,
and sometimes internal bleeding, and spreads
through direct contact with body fluids.

Source - The Telegraph

... go Back