{"id":35617,"date":"2014-07-30T11:00:08","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=35617"},"modified":"2014-07-30T09:56:05","modified_gmt":"2014-07-30T09:56:05","slug":"ebola-virus-a-threat-to-uk-philip-hammond-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/07\/ebola-virus-a-threat-to-uk-philip-hammond-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebola virus a threat to UK – Philip Hammond warns"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Ebola virus, which has killed more than 670 people in West Africa, is a threat to the UK, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has told the BBC.<\/p>\n
He said he would chair an emergency Cobra meeting on the issue later.<\/p>\n
Mr Hammond said no Britons had been affected so far and there were no cases in the UK, but the government was viewing the outbreak very seriously.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month Public Health England issued an alert to UK doctors to be aware of Ebola’s symptoms.<\/p>\n
Several West African airlines have now stopped flying to Liberia and Sierra Leone amid concerns about the outbreak.<\/p>\n
It comes after an infected Liberian man was found to have travelled through a major Nigerian airport last week.<\/p>\n
‘Managing risk’<\/strong><\/p>\n Mr Hammond told BBC News the government was “absolutely focused” on tackling the threat posed by the Ebola virus, including looking at “whether there are precautions we need to take – either in the UK or to protect our nationals in the area abroad”.<\/p>\n He went on: “At the moment we don’t think any British nationals [abroad] are affected and we are fairly confident there are no cases in the UK.<\/p>\n “But it is a threat, it is something we need to respond to and we will be doing so through the Cobra mechanism.”<\/p>\n The Department of Health said a man had been tested for Ebola in Birmingham but tests for the virus proved negative.<\/p>\n A Public Health England spokeswoman said the alert sent to UK doctors on 1 July advised them to be aware of the symptoms of Ebola, especially in people who had recently returned from the affected area.<\/p>\n Issuing national medical alerts was a very common event, she added.<\/p>\n