The body of a victim is carried away.

No Ebola cases have been notified in Malta and the health authorities have played down fears the disease may be carried by migrants.

The Ebola virus has killed almost 700 people in West Africa since February, making it the deadliest outbreak since 1973.

Tanya Melillo Fenech, head of the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Unit, said the migrants who made it to Malta did not come from West Africa but from countries far away from the stricken areas.

But if migrants did come from the affected region, a 21-day incubation period for the virus meant that any infected individual would have likely fallen ill during the journey to Malta, she added.

Migrants undergo routine medical check-ups when arriving in Malta

“Migrants undergo routine medical check-ups when arriving in Malta and specific monitoring for Ebola will be stepped up if the outbreak spreads to countries from where migrants originate,” she said.

The outbreak began in Guinea and spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Nigeria reported its first death from Ebola this week but the Liberian man died after arriving by airplane.

The Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with blood and body fluids of a patient or a corpse. It is not transmitted through air like influenza.

Ebola can also be contracted through unprotected sexual intercourse and the virus may still be present in semen up to seven weeks after a patient would have recovered. The virus is deadly in almost 90 per cent of cases.

Dr Melillo Fenech said that the health authorities had stepped up vigilance for the disease and informed all doctors and port authorities of the symptoms and risks.

“There is no cause for alarm but we are being more vigilant.”

She cautioned against non-essential travel to Guinea and Liberia, insisting those who visited these places should respect the normal rules of personal hygiene.

“They should not engage in unprotected sex, avoid close contact with wild animals such as monkeys and antelopes and refrain from eating bush meat,” she said.

Casual contact in public places with people that do not appear to be sick does not transmit Ebola.

Mosquitoes do not transmit the disease and the Ebola virus is easily killed by soap and sunlight.

Telltale virus symptoms

Initial symptoms are similar to influenza with fever, muscle aches, weakness, headache and sore throat.

The next stage is characterised by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash and malfunction of the liver and kidneys that could lead to multi-organ failure.

But Dr Melillo Fenech cautioned that patients with these symptoms had to be evaluated in the context of their possible exposure to the risk of contracting Ebola.