Health officials have revealed there are no plans to screen travellers entering the UK for the deadly Ebola virus, as more than 100 army medics prepare to travel to Sierra Leone to help tackle the epidemic.

Public Health England (PHE) said the overall risk of the virus to the UK remains “low” and the country has “robust, well-developed and well-tested NHS systems for managing unusual infectious diseases”.

It comes after a Spanish nurse contracted Ebola in the first known transmission outside west Africa.

Hospitals have a record of dealing with imported infectious diseases

A PHE spokesman said: “There are no plans to introduce entry screening for Ebola in the UK.

“This would require the UK to screen every returning traveller, as people could return to the UK from an affected country through any port of entry. This would be huge numbers of low-risk people.”

Dr Brian McCloskey, director of global health at PHE, said: “UK hospitals have a proven record of dealing with imported infectious diseases. If an Ebola case is repatriated to, or detected in, the UK they would receive appropriate treatment in an isolation unit, with all appropriate protocols promptly activated.”

Personnel from 22 Field Hospital, normally based in York, are expected to be sent on their humanitarian operation to west Africa within the next few weeks. They will staff a field hospital set up specifically to treat medics who have caught the disease, not members of the general public, and will operate a 12-bed facility.

The medics have been undergoing an extensive training exercise in full protective suits, with simulated casualties in make-up, at Strensall Barracks, York.

The exercise which is expected to last two weeks has been running for 13 hours every day.

• Shares in airlines and travel companies fell last week amid the latest development in the spread of Ebola.

It came after a Spanish nurse contracted the disease in the first known transmission outside west Africa.

British Airways owner International Airlines Group – which also owns Spain’s Iberia and Vueling – fell by as much as seven per cent, knocking £500 million off its market value.

Low-cost rival easyJet was down four per cent, while cruise ship operator Carnival fell five per cent, with travel agent TUI Travel down three per cent and Thomas Cook falling five per cent.

The falls were likely to have been prompted by fears that the spread of the disease could cause widespread travel disruption.

But the wider market was already on the back foot amid disappointing data.

Traders may also have been looking for a trigger to take profits after airline shares were boosted in recent days following a profit expectation upgrade from easyJet and falling oil prices.

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