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| UK Ebola screening for arrivals from affected countries | UK Ebola screening for arrivals from affected countries |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The UK is to introduce "enhanced screening" for Ebola for arrivals from affected countries. | The UK is to introduce "enhanced screening" for Ebola for arrivals from affected countries. |
| Downing Street said passengers arriving at Gatwick, Heathrow and on Eurostar would face questions and potentially a medical assessment. | Downing Street said passengers arriving at Gatwick, Heathrow and on Eurostar would face questions and potentially a medical assessment. |
| Earlier ministers had ruled out screening, saying the UK was following World Health Organisation advice. | Earlier ministers had ruled out screening, saying the UK was following World Health Organisation advice. |
| Meanwhile the UK is investigating reports a Briton suspected of having Ebola has died in Macedonia. | |
| The outbreak of the disease has already killed more than 3,000 people and infected more than 7,200 - mostly in West Africa. | |
| Medical checks | |
| 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". | |
| 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". | |
| A statement on the Department of Health's website posted on Tuesday said: "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." | |
| But advice issued on Thursday from the UK's chief medical officer said it was "right to consider what further measures could be taken, to ensure that any potential cases arriving in the UK are identified as quickly as possible". | |
| BBC transport correspondent Richard Wescott said the announcement was more about looking like something was being done than stopping the disease's spread. | |
| Medical experts say the chances of someone boarding a flight with no symptoms and being contagious by the time they land was "highly, highly unlikely", he added. | |
| Earlier this week a Spanish nurse became the first person to contract the deadly virus outside of West Africa. |