Ebola screening to be reviewed after doctor attacks ‘inadequate’ measures

THE GUARDIAN  by Josh Halliday and Severin Carrell             Dec. 31, 2014
LONDON--Public HealthEngland has vowed to review its Ebola screening measures after they were branded “utterly illogical” by an NHS doctor who returned from Africa with the Scottish nurse who has contracted the virus.

Public Health England said it would review its procedures, but defended its guidance as being in line with other organisations who have sent volunteers to Ebola-affected countries. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Rex

Dr Martin Deahl, who sat next to Ebola patient Pauline Cafferkey on a flight to the UK from Sierra Leone, told the Guardian that public health was being put at risk by “totally inadequate” screening facilities at Heathrow airport.

He also criticised PHE guidance that allows health workers who have had direct contact with Ebola victims to travel home on public transport once they arrive at a UK airport, but tells them not to catch buses, trains or planes or enter crowded places once they are at home.

In response, PHE confirmed it would review its screening procedures but said they were in line with other organisations that had sent volunteers to tackle the Ebola outbreak in west Africa.

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/30/ebola-airport-screening-reviewed