Brussels, 20/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - Following France and the United Kingdom, on Sunday 19 October, Belgium announced that it was introducing screening in Belgian airports to detect people carrying the Ebola virus travelling from one of the three countries in Africa where the disease is widespread. Belgian company Brussels Airlines is still flying to the affected area. On Friday, Belgian health minister Maggie De Block announced that she has appointed Dr Erika Vlieghe as national Ebola coordinator and advisor, who will manage and coordinate communication to health professionals and the general public.
Passengers flying from Libera, Guinea and Sierra Leone will have their temperatures taken when they arrive in Belgium. If they have a temperature, a nurse will take them aside and fill out a questionnaire before handing them over to a MEDA doctor (MEDA is the name of the medical department at Brussels Airport). The doctor will decide whether the health authorities need to be informed. Baggage-handling will be stepped up and the transport of food from the three countries has been banned. The charity Médecins Sans Frontières has appealed for aid to be able to continue to provide medical care in the three countries, where its budget for staff and equipment has now run out. A campaign is being organised in Belgium to raise funding and provide moral support for the teams of people working in Africa. Good news from Spain, where the most recent tests carried out on a health professional who had contracted the virus shows that she is no longer carrying the disease. Further tests will be carried out to confirm this. (IL)