http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2710285/Ebola-test-feverish-man-flew-Britain-West-Africa-doctors-red-alert-deadly-virus.html

Fears of a global Ebola pandemic are 'justified' an expert has said after a U.S. citizen boarded a flight in Liberia carrying the disease to Nigeria, potentially infecting 'anyone on the same plane'.

Nigerian health officials are in the process of trying to trace 30,000 people, believed to be at risk of contracting the highly-infectious virus, following the death of Patrick Sawyer in Lagos.

It comes as Nigerian actor Jim Iyke sparked outrage, posting a picture of himself wearing an Ebola mask while sitting in a first class airport lounge as he fled Liberia.

The 'Nollywood' star posted a message on his Instagram page saying he had cut short a business trip to Monrovia in Liberia - where at least 600 people have already died from the disease.

The death toll for this, the worst outbreak recorded since the Ebola virus was discovered in 1976, stands at 672, while more than 1,200 people have been infected.

Mr Sawyer, a consultant for Liberia's Finance Ministry, died on Friday after arriving at Lagos airport on June 20, having vomited and suffered diarrhoea on two flights.

The 40-year-old U.S. citizen had been to the funeral of his sister, who also died from the disease.

A woman quarantined at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong has tested negative for the disease, despite returning from a trip to Kenya with Ebola-like symptoms.

'Anyone on the same plane could have become infected because Ebola is easy to catch,' he said.

'It can be passed on through vomiting, diarrhoea or even from simply saliva or sweat - as well as being sexually transmitted.

'That is why there is such alarm over Mr Sawyer because he became ill on the flight so anyone else sharing the plane could have been infected by his vomit or other bodily fluids.'

It comes as health campaigners today called for U.S. authorities to speed up their approval of a new drug hoped to be the first cure for the deadly Ebola virus.

They are calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States to fast-track their authorisation of the TKM-Ebola drug.

The petition, created on change.org, states: 'One of the most promising is TKM-Ebola manufactured by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals.

Picture of Jim Iyke at Airport running from EBOLA!!

Mr Sawyer was put in isolation at the First Consultants Hospital in Obalende, one of the most crowded parts of the city, home to around 21 million people.

He took two flights to reach Lagos, from Monrovia to Lome and then onto the Nigerian capital.

So far 59 people who came into contact with Mr Sawyer have been identified by Nigerian health officials, and are under surveillance.

But health officials have said they are looking at contacting 30,000 people who could be at risk of contracting the disease.

Public health adviser, Yewande Adeshina, added: 'We're actually looking at contacting over 30,000 people in this very scenario.

'Because any and everybody that has contacted this person is going to be treated as a suspect.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2710416/A-new-emerging-threat-Government-convenes-Cobra-emergency-committee-respond-Ebola-outbreak.html

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is to chair the Cobra meeting today, in an escalation of the government's response to the crisis.

He said the UK government was examining the risks of the 'new and emerging threat'.

He told Sky News: 'As far as we are aware, there are no British nationals so far affected by this outbreak and certainly no cases in the UK.

'However the Prime Minister does regard it as a very serious threat and I will be chairing a Cobra meeting later today to assess the situation and look at any measures that we need to take either in the UK, or in our diplomatic posts abroad in order to manage the threat.

'We are very much focused on it as a new and emerging threat which we need to deal with.'

Hospitals and medical centres across the UK remain on red alert for the virus, with doctors being told to look out for symptoms of the disease which can go unnoticed for three weeks and kills 90 per cent of victims.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond today declared the disease a 'very serious threat' to Britain as he prepares to chair an emergency meeting on how to bolster the country's defences against the vicious virus.

British airlines are on alert for cases of the deadly virus, after tests revealed a man died in Nigeria from the disease, having been allowed to board an international flight from Liberia.

A British man has also been tested for the Ebola virus, putting doctors on red alert that it could be on its way to the UK.

A spokesman for Hong Kong's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, said the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) will be notified if it is confirmed the patient is suffering from the Ebola virus.

In Nigeria health officials said today, they are in the process of tracing 30,000 people at risk of contracting the disease after coming into contact with a Liberian man who died on Friday.

Meanwhile, the British man was taken to hospital in Birmingham after complaining of feeling ‘feverish’ on a flight back to the Midlands from West Africa.

He had been travelling from Benin, Nigeria via Paris, France when he became unwell on Monday.

However, after undergoing a number of tests he was given the all-clear for the virus which has already killed 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and infected more than 1,200 since it was first diagnosed in February.

In another scare, medical staff at Charing Cross Hospital in London became concerned a man in his twenties had caught the virus this week.

This is a chart of Ebola's spread so far

I'm particularly worried about transmission via infected currency (dirty Naira), I think its time I went cashless for a while. Plastic all d way !

Ebola! Nawa o! Btw Seun do an online screening here. I heard it can be transmitted via the internet .

It may have mutated to an airborne strain