Ebola screening for NHS 111 calls announced

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29591561

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Call handlers on the NHS non-emergency 111 phone line will try to identify possible Ebola sufferers, in the latest move announced by the health secretary.

Jeremy Hunt said anyone calling up with possible symptoms would be asked about their travel history and referred to local emergency services if necessary.

He said paramedics sent out would have "appropriate protective equipment".

The government has already announced screening from next week at some airports and Eurostar terminals.

In the US, President Barack Obama has said hospitals should improve safety measures after a nurse in Texas who treated an Ebola patient tested positive for the virus.

The UK held an exercise on Saturday to test its response to an Ebola outbreak.

'High risk'

Mr Hunt said: "I am confident in the UK's preparedness and, as demonstrated by Saturday's exercise, we have robust and well-tested systems for dealing with any imported case of Ebola.

"However, we keep the need for further measures under review and will never be complacent - and so I asked for additional steps to be taken by NHS 111."

People who call 111 and report symptoms such as respiratory problems or vomiting will be asked about their travel history, Mr Hunt said.

He said anyone who had "recently been to West Africa and is at high risk of having been in contact with Ebola" would be assessed by emergency services.

Earlier, Mayor of London Boris Johnson said the government was at risk of promising "stuff that doesn't really make any sense".

He said screening - which is due to be introduced at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and Eurostar terminals from next week - was "far from perfect".

Mr Johnson said blood tests could not be done on every passenger and temperature checks would not pick up infected people who had not yet developed symptoms - which can take up to three weeks.

'Blunt instrument'

Passenger screening is expected to focus on people who have recently been to the worst-affected West African countries - Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

In an email seen by the BBC, one consultant has called the screening programme a "political gesture" which was "unlikely to provide public health benefits".

But the government's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, said although the programme was a "blunt instrument" it would save lives.

Screening is under way at New York's JFK airport, and checks at some other US airports are due to start in the coming days.

Figures published by the World Health Organization on Friday showed there had been 4,024 confirmed or suspected Ebola deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone during the current outbreak.