Ebola outbreak: confusion grows over advice to health workers at Heathrow

 
Training: US troops due to be deployed to Africa are shown how to put on a protective suit at Fort Bliss, Texas (Picture: AP Photo/El Paso Times, Victor Calzada)

Public health chiefs came under fire today for “chaos and confusion” over Ebola screening at Heathrow airport.

They admitted that specialist teams at the airport were now being told to stop shaking hands with passengers being checked for the deadly disease.

Public Health England has for days batted away questions over why officials involved in the tests were shaking hands with travellers from Ebola-hit Sierra Leone, Liberia or Guinea.

But after the Standard was told by a senior Whitehall source that updated guidance was being issued to avoid such direct contact, PHE confirmed that health teams were being advised not to shake hands.

Shortcomings: nurse Amber Vinson was allowed to take a flight the day before she was diagnosed with Ebola

The admission cast renewed doubts on the Government’s response to the Ebola crisis following the confusion over whether screening was going to be introduced in the first place.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: “It’s the right thing to do but they can’t afford any more chaos and confusion.

“Since the start, plans for screening have been back-of-the envelope and have not projected the sense that the Government has a grip on this.”

The Standard has been pressing PHE for two days on whether screening teams at Heathrow should be shaking hands with passengers arriving from west Africa.

One such passenger, documentary maker Sorius Samura, 51, who had spent 10 days in Liberia, expressed his surprise at having his hand shaken by an official on arrival at Heathrow.

PHE initially stressed Ebola is not spread “through intact skin, or by ordinary social contact, such as shaking hands or sitting next to someone”.

While sticking to this advice for the general public, it added in a second statement today: “We have advised PHE staff responsible for screening people from countries with endemic Ebola to not shake their hands.

“This is because they are travelling from a high-risk area.”

David Cameron was this afternoon chairing a meeting of Whitehall’s Cobra emergency committee on Britain’s preparedness for Ebola cases here, the Heathrow screening and bringing the crisis in west Africa under control.

Worries about the response to Ebola cases outside west Africa escalated after it emerged a second US health worker to test positive for the deadly virus had been allowed to board a plane despite having a low fever, the day before she was diagnosed.

The White House admitted there had been shortcomings in the public health authorities’ treatment of nurse Amber Vinson. The 29-year-old flew from Cleveland to Dallas on Monday. Health officials are tracing the 132 other passengers on the commercial flight.

Ms Vinson treated Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan at a Texas hospital. He died of Ebola last Wednesday.

Barack Obama has ordered a more aggressive response to Ebola cases in America, including sending in “SWAT” teams of public health experts to deal with incidents within 24 hours.

Nearly 100 British Army medics are due to arrive in Sierra Leone today to operate an Ebola treatment unit for healthcare workers and UK nationals.

World Health Organisation assistant director-general Bruce Aylward has warned the number of new Ebola cases is likely to hit 5,000-10,000 a week by early December.

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