• Screening travellers arriving at airports is not an effective way of identifying those with serious infections. That’s why pre-entry screening for TB was introduced. Canada introduced airport screening during the SARS ( severe acute respiratory syndrome ) epidemic – it cost £ 9m and not one case was identified.

The longer the incubation period in relation to the flight duration, the lower the chance of successful entrance screening.
WHO recommends passengers on international flights out of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia should be screened BEFORE boarding their flights.


• Providing adequate testing facilities on site is a challenge:-

1. There’s a limit to how many doctors and nurses with the necessary expertise can be on " stand by " ;

2. would passengers answer questions voluntarily and honestly ( even if they might be expected to do so if there was a one in two chance of dying without care ) ;

3. isolation of all passengers waiting for test results is a problem ;

4. and illegal immigrants would neither be tested, nor would they necessarily seek early medical help if they had symptoms.


• The Philippines is not sending health workers to West Africa ; the government preferring to focus on efforts to prepare the country for possible entry and spread of Ebola virus. The DOH has identified one referral hospital for each of the country’s 17 regions. It’s preparing the Lung Center of the Philippines, San Lazaro Hospital, and the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine to accommodate possible cases. DOH claims to have enough protective gear, and will train health personnel in all government and private hospitals – better late than never !
Filipinos in West Africa have apparently not come forward to be repatriated, despite the government offering to pay their airfare.


• Apart from daily coverage in the media, articles in medical journals continue to proliferate. This is still an evolving situation.

Points from the articles :-

1. Critical care services in the countries at the centre of the epidemic are urgently needed ( and only now being addressed ) - such that the death rate could be reduced from the present 70% to below 40% and ultimately the epidemic controlled.


2. It’s ethical to try drugs and vaccines with potential benefits even before their effectiveness and safety are fully understood.



3. Many Ebola infections may not have symptoms. These are thought not to be infectious – such people have " naturally acquired immunity ". They need investigating as possibly the best people to care for acutely ill patients ; and their immune serum could be useful.





• As if there wasn’t enough information readily available, here are a few links which are perhaps less easily found :-

1. Philippines :-


• http://www.philstar.com/headlines/20...ola-deployment

• http://www.philstar.com/headlines/20...-ebola-workers



2. Medical journals :-


• http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g6202


• http://www.thelancet.com/journals/la...lltext?rss=yes

• http://www.thelancet.com/journals/la...839-0/fulltext

• http://www.thelancet.com/journals/la...734-7/fulltext