Britain holds national Ebola readiness drill

DPA/Reuters/LondonPrime Minister David Cameron surprised Britain yesterday with a nationwide Ebola readiness drill involving participants from across the health sector.The action comes in response to an outbreak that has killed more than 4,000 people in West Africa, the health ministry confirmed.The ministry, hospitals and ambulance services were taking part in an eight-hour exercise responding to actors simulating symptoms of the virus, according to a ministry spokesman.“It is crucial to create the most realistic situation possible in order to test our responsiveness to a possible outbreak,” the spokesman said.It will be followed by a “simulated” meeting of the government’s emergency committee Cobra, the spokesman said.“The public can be assured that we have been planning our response to an Ebola case in the UK for many months now since the outbreak started in west Africa,” the spokesman added.The news comes after Britain announced plans to hold airport screenings at major international airport terminals, similar to the ones instated in the US on Wednesday.Britain has only treated one case of Ebola on its shores.William Pooley, a nurse who contracted the virus while working in Sierra Leone, made a full recovery last month after being treated in a London hospital.Britain announced on Wednesday that it was sending 750 military personnel, a medical ship and three helicopters to Sierra Leone to help fight the spread of Ebola.It also said on Thursday it would start screening travellers coming from Ebola-hit parts of west Africa at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and on Eurostar trains from Belgium and France.In Madrid, the condition of a Spanish nurse who contracted Ebola after treating a missionary who was flown in from Liberia has improved, media reported.The nurse, identified by daily El Pais as Teresa Romero, is conscious and speaking with doctors after a severe deterioration of her condition earlier this week.In addition to Romero, 16 people have been quarantined in Spain to contain a possible spread of the virus.One person, a doctor who attended Romero, tweeted that he was in good condition.“Energetic, asymptomatic, hoping for Teresa’s recovery, a return to normalcy and a return to my work as a medical doctor,” Juan Manuel Parra posted on the social media site.On Friday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released updated figures on the Ebola death toll, saying that 4,033 people have succumbed to the virus globally.The hardest-hit country is Liberia, where 2,316 people have died. The death toll in Sierra Leone and Guinea stands at nearly 1,000 respectively, according to the latest WHO update.Also on Friday, the first vaccine trial on African soil was launched with 40 people in Mali volunteering to receive experimental treatment that could prevent infection.Initial trials of the vaccine started in September on healthy individuals in the United States and Britain.Forty people are also slated to take part in Gambia.Leading scientists published an editorial in response to the trial in the Lancet medical, British media reported, warning that administering a placebo during such a deadly outbreak would be unethical.