UK government announces tests at London's airports
and train terminal after suspicious death of Briton in
Macedonia.
Health authorities in many European countries have
been preparing for the possible arrival of suspected
and confirmed cases of Ebola, following guidelines
issued by the World Health Organisation.
The British government announced on Thursday it
was stepping up its Ebola screening at airports,
responding to growing public fears about the spread
of the virus to Europe, and following reports of the
death of a British citizen in Macedonia.
The government announced that screening will start
at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports, and at
the Eurostar train terminal.
British authorities said travellers from Sierra Leone,
Liberia and Guinea will be asked about recent travel,
who they have been in contact with and their onward
travel plans. Medical assessment could be given by
trained staff on site.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry displayed on
Thursday a Russian plane designed to transfer any
infected Ebola patients.
The ministry has also offered help to European states
to work with those who are infected with Ebola.
The news of the unidentified Briton's death in Skopje
on Thursday comes as the head of the World Bank
and West African leaders warned that the virus
threatens the entire African continent.
Health officials in the Macedonian capital, however,
cautioned that the diagnosis could not be confirmed
until a German laboratory had completed its analysis.
Britain's Foreign Office in London said it was
investigating the case.
The Briton was taken to Skopje's hospital for
Infectious Diseases after the hotel where he was
staying called the emergency services, Macedonia's
health ministry spokeswoman Jovanka Kostovska
said.
He complained of stomach pain and "refused to eat
or to see a doctor," she said.
The patient was admitted to the hospital and passed
away shortly after. Officials said the man's
symptoms, and the speed at which they developed,
led them to suspect Ebola.
Under quarantine
The Skopje hotel where he was staying was sealed off
and those thought to have had contact with him were
put under quarantine.
Health officials did not name the victim, saying only
that he was born in 1956.
The man arrived in Macedonia from London on
October 2 and was not thought to have travelled to
any countries affected by the Ebola virus, his friends
were reported to have said.
The world's largest outbreak of the disease has killed
3,865 people out of 8,033 infected so far this year,
mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according
to the World Health Organisation's latest count.
A nurse in Spain this week became the first person to
contract the killer virus outside Africa, after caring
for two repatriated Ebola patients at a Madrid
hospital.
In Australia, authorities said eleven people have been
tested for the disease in recent weeks.
A Red Cross nurse who worked with patients of the
virus in Sierra Leone reported a low-level fever on
Thursday after returning to Australia, but came back
negative of the virus after a test, although she is still
only 10 days into the 21-day incubation period during
which infection can happen.
On Wednesday, a Liberian man who contracted the
disease had died in the United States after travelling
to the state of Texas.
On Thursday, an official from the US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention warned that strong
measures must be taken to prevent the disease from
becoming the world's next AIDS epidemic.
These America medics are among the many
volunteers training to be deployed to the worst
affected countries in West Africa.