Uk refuses to screen incoming passengers from ebola affected countries unlike U.S

Britain is refusing to screen for Ebola victims at its borders – despite the U.S. saying it will introduce the safeguards this weekend.

The UK receives more air passengers from the affected West African countries than any other nation, but health officials here say the screening – a simple temperature test and questionnaire – is unnecessary.

As Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt called the Ebola outbreak a 'serious global health emergency', Barack Obama ordered his officials to screen travellers at five major airports.  

People across the world are now testing positive for the deadly virus and yesterday Thomas Eric Duncan died in a Texas hospital from the disease.  

A nurse in Spain who treated two Ebola patients at a Madrid hospital is in quarantine and this morning it was revealed that a 57-year-old Australian woman is being tested after showing symptoms.

She had recently returned to Queensland from Sierra Leone and fell ill after a week of being back in her native country.

The Dallas County sheriff's deputy, Sgt Michael Monnig, has also been hospitalised over fears he may have contracted the virus after attending the home of Mr Duncan a week ago.

It is feared Spanish nurse Teresa Romero, who became the first person to contract Ebola outside West Africa, may have caught the deadly virus after touching her face with an infected glove.

Her husband has also been placed in quarantine, while her dog Excalibur was put down overnight amid fears the animal could spread the disease.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee, said Britain should follow in the footsteps of the U.S and start airport screening.

'We need to put in screening at our borders,' he said. 'We don't want to deal with this after the event.'

But defence secretary Michael Fallon told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: 'We take advice from the WHO that screening is best done on exit from these countries. 

'We are taking all the precautions and GPs are ready to deal with symptoms and deal with it directly.’

The row erupted as: 

• Mr Hunt admitted it was 'entirely possible' the deadly virus will enter the UK 'by one route or another'.
• Every major hospital in England was ordered to prepare for the arrival of ebola patients.
• Health experts pleaded that anyone with symptoms do not visit their GP or A&E for fear of spreading the disease.
• The mother of a nine-year-old boy from Sierra Leone, whose visit to a school in Stockport was cancelled in case of infection, said her son was being treated 'like a leper'.
• The World Health Organisation admitted the march of the virus across Europe was 'unavoidable'.
• Some 750 British military personnel are being sent to West Africa to help tackle the spread of the disease.
• The official global death toll approached 3,900 out of 8,000 cases, making it one of the worst health disasters in modern history.

Screening at border points, which was first used during the Chinese SARS outbreak in 2002, involves a simple temperature test, sometimes accompanied by a health questionnaire.

A thermal scanner is pointed at the passenger's forehead to detect an elevated fever.

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'We don't want to deal with this after the event': Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee, said Britain must 'put in screening at our borders'

If the temperature is above normal, the passenger would be questioned about their movements and medical history, and taken for further tests. 

Last night a No 10 source said Downing Street believed other actions were more effective than screening, but added that it had not been completely ruled out.

'The US are doing this, and we will want to look at how it is implemented and how effective it is,' the source said. 'We are not convinced it is effective, but we are staying flexible.' 

US officials said screening ebola would start at five major airports – New York's John F Kennedy, Newark in New Jersey, Washington Dulles in the US capital, O'Hare in Chicago and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta – as early as this weekend.

Passengers arriving from affected countries Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will be given questionnaires and have their temperatures taken.

Professor Peter Piot, who was part of the team that identified Ebola in 1976, said he was not concerned about a mass outbreak of the killer disease here, but we should be ready for isolated cases amongst those who have travelled to west Africa to help in the outbreak.

Prof Piot, a director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said he never believed an Ebola outbreak could have become so deadly.

He told BBC Breakfast: 'Let's not forget that in the 38 years since 1976 there have only been about 1,500 people who died from Ebola, less than 40 a year.

'So it wasn't really a big issue, a big public health problem, but here it got completely out of control in the first place because we never knew and imagined it could pop up in west Africa. The response was very slow so it got out of control before the current measures were put in place. It makes it much more difficult.' 

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: 'The disease is an unprecedented threat that knows no borders. We now need the wider international community to step up to the plate.

'We all have to do more if we are going to prevent what is currently a crisis from becoming a catastrophe.'

Britain has the busiest air hubs in the world, receiving more passengers than any other nation from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

-Daily mail