Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent the spread of Ebola in the UK.

Ebola is not endemic in the United Kingdom and the appropriate reservoir animals are not present, therefore any case would be imported. The disease spreads by direct contact of an infected person’s body fluids or during the funeral rites of a deceased case. If an traveller from a country with an outbreak presents to a hospital, the clinician can contact the Imported Fever Service (IFS) 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The IFS will advise on likelihood of a case, any immediate action to take and arrange for testing of the case through the Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory (RIPL). The IFS and/or RIPL will inform the National Health Service High Consequence Infectious Disease network, which will arrange for isolation and care of the case. A national incident team will manage any public health issues if required.