Gatwick begins Ebola screening

Screening for Ebola has begun at Gatwick airport as of Tuesday, Public Health England (PHE) has announced.

It will start in the north terminal, followed by the south terminal from Wednesday, then the St Pancras Eurostar train station later in the week. “This expands the screening initiated at Heathrow last week, which is going well,” a PHE spokesman said. “Manchester and Birmingham airports will follow in the coming weeks.”

The screening is taking place for passengers identified by Border Force officers as having travelled from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Passengers have their temperature taken and complete a questionnaire asking about their current health, recent travel history and whether they might be at potential risk through contact with Ebola patients.

Based on the information provided and their temperature, passengers will either be given advice and allowed to continue their journey or undergo a clinical assessment by PHE staff and if necessary be transferred to hospital for further tests.

“Screening is being undertaken to help ensure individuals arriving from high-risk areas know what to do if they start feeling ill, and can receive expert advice immediately,” said the PHE spokesman. “We are also providing all general practices, emergency departments, and pharmacies in England with awareness posters from this week. Public Health England will continue to consider other appropriate additional measures.”

Canadian researchers have argued that screening on exit is the best way to stop Ebola-infected people boarding flights out of Africa. The team from St Michael’s hospital in Toronto, Canada, said only three people a month with Ebola were likely to try and fly out of west Africa – and that restricting air travel was harmful to the economies of the countries fighting the epidemic, while doing little to protect the west.