EU steps up Ebola screening as top health official issues warning

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. The Russian Emergencies Ministry also displayed on Thursday a plane designed to transfer any infected Ebola patients. The ministry has offered help to European states to work with those who are infected with Ebola.

I would say that in the 30 years I’ve been working in public health, the only thing like this has been AIDS.

Tom Frieden, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to world leaders

Meanwhile, a top U.S. health official urged swift action to prevent the deadly Ebola virus from becoming the next AIDS epidemic, as the health of an infected Spanish nurse deteriorated. In Madrid, the condition of a nurse who treated two elderly missionaries with Ebola worsened, leaving her at “serious risk” of dying, Madrid regional president Ignacio Gonzalez told parliament. Separately in Washington, Republicans in the House agreed to release $700 million more to fight Ebola from the Defense Department’s request to shift $1 billion in war funds, bringing the total so far to $750 million. 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.

Health Ebola aid