British airports and airlines are on high alert to prevent the deadly Ebola virus from reaching this country.
Passengers thought to have the virus will be barred from boarding flights heading to the UK – and will be held at immigration if they appear ill on arrival.
They will then be quarantined in highly secure isolation units, such as those at the Royal Free Hospital in North London.
But because it takes up to three weeks for symptoms to appear, there are fears some victims will slip through the net.
Doctors have been told to look out for symptoms of the disease and travellers returning from West Africa are urged to seek immediate medical help if they develop flu-like symptoms.
One of the deadliest diseases known to man, Ebola has already claimed more than 670 lives in its worst-ever outbreak.
For the first time, the virus, which kills up to 90 per cent of its victims, has spread out of the countryside to large towns and cities, raising fears it will arrive in Britain on an international flight.
It can be spread through sweat and saliva and there is no vaccine or cure.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who chaired a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee on the outbreak yesterday, said Ebola was a ‘very serious threat’.
But he sought to calm fears, saying it ‘most unlikely’ that Ebola could spread within the UK because of ‘frankly different’ standards of infection control here.
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