The UK health authorities have started Ebola screening of passengers arriving at Heathrow airport. While there are no direct flights into Heathrow from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where Ebola has killed more than 4,000 people, passengers who are coming from these countries will be subjected to strict screening.
Air France, Royal Air Maroc and Brussels Airlines are the only airlines that fly out of the three most affected countries.
A Heathrow spokesperson has issued the following staement about the procedure which has started today at Terminal 1 and will be extended to cover all terminals at Heathrow as well as Gatwick and the Eurostar train terminal, “The welfare of our passengers and colleagues is always our main priority and we are working with Government to support the implementation of targeted screening measures as announced by the Health Secretary today. We would like to reassure passengers that the Government assesses the risk of a traveller contracting Ebola to be low.”
In an unrelated incident, five passengers arriving on October 13 on an Emirates Airlines flight from Dubai to Boston Logan airport were taken to the hospital with flu like symptoms and the plane was inspected by US health inspectors.
