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<p>The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, has advised that the overall
risk to the public remains low. The United Kingdom has robust, well-developed and
well-tested public health and National Health Service systems for preventing and managing
infectious diseases including any imported case of this type of disease, supported
by a wide range of experts and specialist units. NHS England has recently received
assurance from all NHS acute and ambulance chief executives of their readiness for
an Ebola case.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Screening arrangements are in place at
the UK’s main ports of entry for people travelling from the affected regions. Screening
involves temperature checks and a questionnaire asking about current health, recent
travel history and any contact with Ebola patients. Passengers are required to provide
contact details and are given advice on what to do and whom to contact should they
develop symptoms.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>In addition to weekly meetings with
the Devolved Administrations at official level, I hold regular meetings with the health
minister counterparts in the Devolved Administrations on UK Ebola preparedness and
response.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>A number of national and local multi-agency
exercises have been conducted in recent months to test operational resilience and
provide assurance of Ebola preparedness. This included a recent exercise involving
all four nations of the UK. The case of the British nurse recently returned from Sierra
Leone demonstrated that the systems put in place across the UK to prepare for and
respond to a case of Ebola worked well. In the light of that case, Public Health England
has reviewed and further strengthened its screening protocols to ensure that anyone
from a higher risk group who feels unwell at the time of screening will be reassessed.
Advice will also be sought from an infectious diseases specialist and the passenger
will be referred for testing if appropriate. The screening centres at Heathrow were
viewed first-hand by the Chief Medical Officer and myself on 1 January 2015 and all
arrangements, including the revised protocols, were found to be working well. We will
continue to keep screening arrangements under review and look to improve or strengthen
the process as guided by expert clinical advice.</p><p> </p>
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