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| Ebola panic grips Britain, United States and Canada: UK, US and Canada start Ebola screening at airports and other entry points |
Except the threat of ISIS, Ebola virus is the next in line that is causing serious panic in Britain, United States and Canada. With the virus reaching Spain, the United States and perhaps Australia recently, the panic button in the United Kingdom has been hit. The condition of a Spanish nurse, 44-year old Teresa Romero, who contacted the virus in Spain has worsened, according to the hospital treating her. The panic is causing British authorities to shift their stance. Experts have also warned ISIS terrorists could deliberately infect themselves with the virus with the intention of spreading it in western countries.
Many in Britain are perhaps not aware that Ebola virus once struck in the heart of Britain - albeit surreptitiously, several years ago. Ebola virus once infected a scientist in England in 1977. Luckily the victim survived after being treated with the serum of a victim that survived the disease.
Few days after British officials ruled out any plans to start screening inbound travelers at the British airports for Ebola, the British government announced it would start the screening to prevent the spread of the virus in the United Kingdom.
The UK Department of Health's website stated on Tuesday: "The overall risk of Ebola to the UK remains low. Entry screening in the UK is not recommended by the World Health Organisation, and there are no plans to introduce entry screening for Ebola in the UK."
However, Downing Street on Thursday said passengers arriving at Gatwick, Heathrow and on Eurostar would face questions and potentially a medical assessment. In a statement, Number 10 said advice from the chief medical officer was that checks on arrivals would "offer an additional level of protection to the UK".
According to the BBC, the new checks - for those arriving from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea - will involve "assessing passengers' recent travel history, who they have been in contact with and onward travel arrangements", it said.
Passengers could also be subject to medical checks "by trained medical personnel rather than Border Force staff" and will be given advice on "what to do should they develop symptoms later".
Meanwhile, the British government is investigating reports that a Briton suspected of having Ebola has died in Macedonia. The UK foreign office said it is currently investigating the case, which was flagged by a senior Macedonian official. The official told the BBC that the travelling companion of the dead British man told Macedonian authorities that they had travelled to Skopje directly from Britian and had not been to any countries where Ebola outbreak has been recorded. A second Briton has been reported to have shown sypmtoms of the virus.
Troops to Liberia and Sierra Leone
In a bid to help cut of the virus, as it has shown it has potential global spread, western governments are sending troops to the Ebola hotspots in West Africa. Al Jazeera reports that two US military flights are to arrive to Liberia on Thursday. A US Army Captain, R. Carter Langston told The AP news agency of the troop movement. The US military is working to build medical centers in Liberia and may send up to 4,000 soldiers to help with the Ebola crisis. More than 750 British troops are due to arrive to Sierra Leone next week to help build treatment centres and an Ebola "training academy". WHO said Liberia and Sierra Leone, the worst-hit countries, have enough beds to only meet quarter of their needs.
Meanwhile Liberia has suspended its nationwide Senate elections after the election commission admitted it would not be able to stage the ballot safely, according to a government statement. No new date was given. Almost three million voters had been due to go to polling stations on Tuesday to elect half of its legislative upper chamber, but organisers said there was no way a "mass movement, deployment and gathering of people" could go ahead without endangering lives. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was exercising powers under a state of emergency announced in August "to suspend... any and all rights ordinarily exercised, enjoyed and guaranteed to citizens," the foreign office said in a statement issued late on Wednesday, quoting a presidential proclamation. The election commission said in a statement it had recommended the postponement because it could not conduct "a free, fair, transparent and credible election" because of the epidemic.
Ebola in Australia
A 57-year-old Red Cross volunteer, who returned on Tuesday from Sierra Leone to Australia's town of Cairns, is the latest suspected Ebola case. The woman has confined herself to her apartment, and health authorities insist there is no cause for alarm. "She has a flatmate but she hasn't been unwell at all till this morning and she's had a low grade fever," Jeannette Young, Queensland chief health office, said on Thursday. Noting that the disease is contracted only through bodily fluids from infected people, Young said the suspected case "doesn't have any symptoms producing those secretions so therefore her risk of infecting someone else is very, very low."
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