Prime minister David Cameron said on Friday that passengers would be asked questions and potentially given a medical assessment.
Cameron said the government has finally agreed to bring in airport screening "to keep our own people safe from the Ebola virus".
Home ministers had initially no plans to screen people arriving from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Cameron said "Further screening has been kept under review throughout this period and advice from the chief medical officer today is that enhanced screening arrangements at the UK's main ports of entry for people travelling from the affected regions - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - will offer an additional level of protection to the UK".
"Enhanced screening will initially be implemented at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports and Eurostar terminals and will involve assessing passengers' recent travel history, who they have been in contact with and onward travel arrangements as well as a possible medical assessment, conducted by trained medical personnel rather than Border Force staff. Passengers will also be given advice on what to do should they develop symptoms later".
According to Cameron "these measures will help to improve our ability to detect and isolate Ebola cases. However, it is important to stress that given the nature of this disease, no system could offer 100% protection from non-symptomatic cases".
Britain's Chief Medical Officer said "In line with international health requirements, exit screening arrangements have already been implemented in the affected countries in west Africa to ensure that any passenger showing signs of Ebola is prevented from leaving the country. Although the risk to the UK remains low, in view of the concern about the growing number of cases, it is right to consider what further measures could be taken, to ensure that any potential cases arriving in the UK are identified as quickly as possible".
Cameron chaired a COBR meeting on Ebola early this week. The attendees included the Chancellor, Home Secretary, Defence Secretary, Health Secretary, Transport Secretary, International Development Secretary, Public Health Minister, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Scientist and Dr Paul Cosford from Public Health England. The Foreign Secretary in the US and UK team in Sierra Leone joined via a video link.
There was a detailed discussion about plans for protecting the UK against Ebola. The Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, and Dr Paul Cosford set out that the UK had some of the best public health protection systems in the world and the risk to the UK remained low.
http://ift.tt/1svtLbq screening,David Cameron
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