Live: Ebola outbreak alerts outside Africa with fears virus will spread worldwide

Kenya Airways, which operates services to and from Sierra Leone, has chosen not to suspend flights in response to the Ebola outbreak.

In a statement, the airline said they were taking precautionary measures, but no travel bans had been recommended.

They said they would be educating all staff on Ebola, how it is transmitted and how to keep safe, and supplying crew members with Universal Precaution Kits to protect themselves from bodily fluids.

They said: “It is also important to note that Ebola is transmitted by contact with body fluids of an ailing patient. However,during the incubation period (1 — 21 days), the infected person is well enough to travel and cannot transmit infection. When the symptoms set in, after this period, the person is too sick to travel and soon becomes bedridden. Hence the chances of being infected on board have been estimated to be minimal.

“So far Ebola has not been declared an epidemic/pandemic. No travel bans or advisory have been given or recommended.”

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An infectious disease specialist says the UK is not “doomed”, but are right to be concerned about the spread of Ebola beyond West Africa.

Professor Robert Dingwall, a specialist in health policy responses to infectious diseases at Nottingham Trent University, said: “In a region where many people live in overcrowded conditions with poor communications and limited health services, there is a real risk of the outbreak becoming an epidemic.

“The UK government is taking the threat seriously, but the virus would arrive into a very different environment. There is no animal species that carries the infection when it is not active in people – while there is some smuggling of ‘bushmeat’, which could carry the virus, this is not a large-scale problem. Although recent NHS reforms have disrupted the public health infrastructure that successfully managed the 2009 influenza pandemic, we could still mount a well-organised response.

“However, we cannot hope to keep cases out at the borders. The interval between the time someone is infected and the time symptoms appear varies from two to 21 days and people who survive can continue to pass on the virus for up to seven weeks. When the symptoms first appear, they are hard to distinguish from many more common feverish infections. The important thing is for both doctors and patients to be vigilant, if someone develops a fever and has either been in West Africa or passed through a hub airport with a lot of West African traffic.
“We are not doomed in the UK, but it is sensible to raise our level of alert.”

The spread of the disease is thought to have quickened due to local people mistrusting medical teams. Some believe the outbreak is a hoax – or even that health workers are killing patients.

Health workers were attacked in Zango Town last month while they were trying to spray the are a with chlorine. Citizens of the town tried to set their car on fire.

According to the World Heath Organisation, 108 new cases and 12 deaths were reported in West Africa between 21st and 23rd of July.

It’s the worst outbreak of the disease on record, according to theWorld Health Organisation, who say it has infected 1201 people and killed 672.

The current outbreak is thought to have been passed to humans from the region’s fruit bat population.

The son of an American missionary who caught Ebola in Liberia told US news programme Today his mother is “fighting through it.”

Jeremy Writebol spoke to the morning news show about his mother Nancy, who works as a hygienist for Christian humanitarian group Samaritan’s Purse.

Nancy and her husband, David, have worked in the region for a decade. Her job involved disinfecting health workers who had been treating victims of Ebola.

David Writebol has shown no symptoms of the disease, but doctors and family are concerned he may have contracted the disease from his wife. His condition is being monitored and he takes his temperature every six hours.

All soccer in Liberia has been suspended to help contain the Ebola outbreak.

The President’s cup, due to take place in August will be postponed, and all training has been cancelled.

Football chiefs are concerned the disease could spread through contact between players.

Liberian Football Association Secretary General Alphonso Armeh told Reuters: “We have decided to suspend all football activity while we help the government combat the deadly Ebola disease.

“We also want to use this time to create awareness. In its initial stages we didn’t give this the attention it needed.”

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The Hong Kong woman who doctors feared had contracted Ebolahas tested negative for the deadly virus, according to the South China Morning Post.

She returned to Hong Kong on Monday after a trip to Kenya and developed flu-like symptoms.

The 39-year-old woman was kept in isolation while undergoing tests, but a hospital source said she did not have the virus and was in a stable condition.

Nigerian doctors have been out on strike for nearly a month, despite the growing Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

The doctors say the hospital system in the country is near collapse, and walked out until the government agreed to supply enough resources to adequately treat patients, according to Voice of America.

The outbreak has not yet reached Nigeria, but has killed almost 700 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Lione.

But a Liberian official Patrick Sawyer visiting the mega-city of Lagos died of the virus last week, prompting fears the epidemic could spread to Nigeria.

Atonoyebe Oyede, a Nigerian civil servant said containing the spread of the deadly disease without improvements to the country’s health care system would require an act of God.

He said: “You see that this Ebola outbreak, other African countries we have experienced it, but here in Nigeria we live by faith”

The European Commission is scaling up funding in response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The Commission has allocated an additional €2 million to fight the epidemic, the worst on record, bringing their total aid to €3.9 million.

“The spread of the disease on the ground is extremely worrying and we need to scale up our action before many more lives are lost,” said Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.

“I want to pay tribute to the health workers who strive around the clock to help the victims and prevent further contagion, often at serious risk to their own lives.

“The EU itself has deployed experts to the affected countries to help assess the situation and coordinate with the authorities. But we need a sustained effort from the international community to help West Africa deal with this menace”.

A reporter for US breakfast News programme Good Morning America says aid groups are evacuating their staff from the worst hit parts of Africa.

Mike Milhaven says ABC News’ chief medical editor Dr Richard Besser will have more details on the programme later today. We’ll update as more information becomes available.

Public Health England, the health protection agency of the Department of Health says the risk of the Ebola epidemic to UK travellers remains low, but has asked doctors to remain vigilant.

The comments were made in a statement posted to their Twitter account.

Dr Bart Janssens, director of operations for Medicins Sans Frontieres, says the outbreak in West Africa is “unprecedented” and warned it could affect other countries.

In an interview given to Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique, he said: “This epidemic is unprecedented, absolutely not under control and the situation is getting worse, since it still runs, especially in Liberia and Sierra Leone, with very large homes.

“We are extremely concerned by the turn taken by the particular situation in these two countries where there is a major lack of visibility of the epidemic.

“If the situation does not improve quickly enough, there is a real risk that new countries affected.”

Humanitarian group Samaritan’s Purse says a Canadian doctor who recently returned home from West Africa is not under any kind of quarantine, despite reports to the contrary.

The group said Dr Azaria Marhyman, who returned to his home in Victoria, BC on Saturday was taking some time off with his wife and children, and was not under voluntary quarantine.

Group spokesman Jeff Adams said: “He flew home on Saturday — very healthy, no symptoms at all.

“He decided that it had been a couple of pretty exhausting weeks in Liberia and contacted his staff and said, ‘Would you cancel my appointments for the week? I just want to stay home with my family.'”

An American doctor who treats patients with the Ebola virus says he is “terrified” after catching the disease himself.

US medic Kent Brantly, 33, fell ill despite wearing full protective gear.

He wrote in an email to a former colleague in Texas: “I’m praying fervently God will help me survive this disease.”

Read the full story

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More details from the Birmingham Mail on the man tested for Ebola at Birmingham Airport.

The passenger was travelling from Benin, Nigeria via Paris, and was taken to hospital after complaining he felt ‘feverish’ on the flight.

Justine Howl, of Birmingham Airport, confirmed that the passenger was taken to hospital after arriving on a flight.

She said: “A passenger arrived on Monday feeling unwell and we instigated our normal procedures and he was taken to hospital.”

It is thought he was transferred to Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham where he underwent tests for the virus and was given the all-clear.

Bleeding eyes, severe vomiting and deadly organ failure are just some of the symptoms that develop in the later stages of the highly infectious and deadly Ebola virus.

The killer disease starts off with similar pains to the common cold with a sore throat, fever and headache in an onslaught on the body’s immune system.

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But within days the sufferer will begin to experience chronic abdominal pain, muscle aches, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Clots and hemorrhaging quickly follow, affecting the liver, spleen, brain and other internal organs.

A rash then appears on the body – the point where luckier patients will recover, while others develop the final fatal phase: hemorrhaging fever.

Doctors are treating the first possible case of the Ebola virus in Hong Kong as the Foreign Secretary warns the killer disease is a ‘threat’ to the UK.

A woman is being treated for ‘Ebola-like’ symptoms at the Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital in Hong Kong after recently returning from a trip to Africa.

She has been quarantined as officials carry out tests to establish if it a case of the deadly virus, China Daily reports.

And today Philip Hammond admitted the largest outbreak of Ebola, which has killed at least 670 people in West Africa, is a “threat” to Britain.

He will chair an emergency Cobra meeting with government colleagues to discuss possible action later.

Cambridge University’s Dr Peter Walsh, a lecturer in archaeology and anthropology and Ebola expert, says: “It’s possible someone infected will fly to Heathrow having infected other people sitting next to them or by using the toilet.

“This strain of Ebola is probably the second most deadly virus in the world after canine rabies. If you get canine rabies, you’re going to die, but we also have vaccines for that.

“This is worse than anthrax, but there are vaccines and treatments for anthrax, too.”

But Dr Walsh says any cases that reached Britain would be far more manageable.

He says: “Ebola is pretty containable with modern methods in modern countries. You won’t see a major outbreak in the UK.”

The epidemic is thought to have begun in Guinea in March, before spreading to Liberia and Sierra Leone. It’s the worst outbreak of the disease on record,  according to the  World Health Organisation, who say it has infected 779 people and killed 481.

The current outbreak is thought to have been passed to humans from the region’s fruit bat population.

The spread of the disease is thought to have quickened due to local people mistrusting medical teams. Some believe the outbreak is a hoax – or even that health workers are killing patients.

Health workers were attacked in Zango Town last month while they were trying to spray the are a with chlorine. Citizens of the town tried to set their car on fire.

According to the World Heath Organisation, 108 new cases and 12 deaths were reported in West Africa between 21st and 23rd of July.

Outbreaks start when the disease is passed to humans from wild animals. It then spreads through communities by direct contact with blood, bodily fluids or corpse of an infected person.

The illness often starts with a fever, weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This develops into vomiting, diarrhoea, rashes, failing liver and kidney function and bleeding.

The Ebola virus is among the most lethal diseases known to man. There is no vaccine, no cure, and it kills 90% of infected patients.

Outbreaks typically occur in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests. The spread of the disease is worsened by mistrust of western medicine in some African communities.

An update from our political reporter Jack Blanchard about Defence Secretary Philip Hammond chairing a crisis Cobra committee meeting:

The move comes after a man travelling from Africa became the first person to be tested for the deadly virus in Britain. The patient was taken to hospital in Birmingham after complaining of feeling “feverish” on a flight back to the Midlands from West Africa.

He was given the all-clear but Mr Hammond says the Government is “absolutely focused” on what is a real threat to Britons.

The top Tory said: “I’m going to chair a Cobra meeting later on today to look at the threat from the Ebola outbreak and whether there are precautions we need to take within the UK or to protect our nationals in the area abroad.

“At the moment we don’t think any British nationals are affected and we’re fairly confident that there are no cases in UK. But there is a threat.

“It is something we need to respond to and we will be doing so through the Cobra mechanism later today.”

Fears are growing the deadly Ebola virus could have spread beyond the epidemic in West Africa, after alerts in the UK and Hong Kong.

A man was tested at a hospital in Birmingham after arriving back in the UK from Nigeria via Paris.

He has since been given the all-clear, but the scare has increased fears the virus could spread to Britain.

A woman with “Ebola like symptoms” has been quarantined in Hong Kong’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, according to local media.

The woman is undergoing tests and is understood to have recently returned from a trip to Africa.

The Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa presents a “threat” to the UK, according to Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who will chair an emergency meeting of Cobra today.

Ebola is one of the deadliest viruses known to man. There is no vaccine, no cure, and it kills 90% of infected patients.

The epidemic currently spreading through West Africa is the worst on record, according to the World Heath Organisation.

The outbreak has killed 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with more than 1,000 people confirmed to have been infected since March.

Dr Bert Janssens, director of operations at Medecins Sans Frontieres described the outbreak as “out of control.”

We’ll have the latest on the outbreak, and any suspected cases outside of Africa here as events develop.