Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the strain of the ebola virus responsible for the recent outbreak, and whether it is a novel mutated strain of the virus.

The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is caused by Ebola Virus (EBOV) (formerly Zaire ebolavirus), first discovered in 1976. There is no evidence to suggest that the current strain of EBOV has a higher rate of transmissibility or an unusual level of pathogenicity compared with previous strains.

The Department continues to work with colleagues across government to monitor and assess the risk posed to the United Kingdom by the current Ebola epidemic. The advice from the Chief Medical Officer is that the public health risk in the UK remains low, but this risk assessment is kept under regular review.