Richard Harrington – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Harrington on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what contingency plans he has in place to deal with an outbreak of Ebola virus in the UK.

Jane Ellison

The National Health Service has plans in place to deal with patients with infectious diseases as part of its core business. This includes plans to manage patients in line with infection control procedures, and where necessary in highly specialist infectious diseases facilities.A patient with Ebola virus infection would be cared for in the national High Level Isolation Unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London. In the unlikely event of an outbreak involving more than two people, specialist staff at this unit are trained and prepared to look after patients safely in an isolation ward, which would be dedicated for this purpose.

In the UK, the procedures outlined in the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens guidelines, “The Management of Hazard Group 4 viral haemorrhagic fevers and similar human infectious diseases of high consequence”, are followed for any suspected case.

Public Health England has assessed the risk of importation of Ebola in the UK as very low. It is extremely unlikely that an outbreak of Ebola would occur in the UK even if there was to be an imported case, as there are factors operating in West Africa which would not be seen in the UK.