UK airports start Ebola screening over fears disease is just days away

Enhanced screening for Ebola will begin at Britain’s biggest airport today after the Health Secretary revealed the deadly virus is expected to reach the UK.

Jeremy Hunt said checks would begin at Heathrow’s Terminal 1 before they are expanded to cover Gatwick airport and Eurostar rail terminals by the end of next week, as the death toll in west Africa reached more than 4,000 people.

He told MPs it was ‘likely’ that Ebola will be seen in the UK and a ‘handful’ of cases could be confirmed in the next three months.

Enhanced screening for Ebola will begin at Britain’s biggest airport today after the Health Secretary revealed the deadly virus is expected to reach the UK.

Jeremy Hunt said checks would begin at Heathrow’s Terminal 1 before they are expanded to cover Gatwick airport and Eurostar rail terminals by the end of next week, as the death toll in west Africa reached more than 4,000 people.

He told MPs it was ‘likely’ that Ebola will be seen in the UK and a ‘handful’ of cases could be confirmed in the next three months.

In a statement to the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Hunt said: ‘This Government’s first priority is the safety of the British people. Playing our part in halting the rise of the disease in west Africa is the single most important way of preventing Ebola affecting people in the UK.

‘Whilst there are no direct flights from the affected region, there are indirect routes into the UK.

‘In the next week, Public Health England will start screening and monitoring UK bound air passengers identified by the Border Force coming on to the main routes from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.’