Heathrow airport will begin screening passengers for Ebola from today.
Passengers who have flown into the UK from countries at risk such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will all be identified by Border Force officers. Nurses and consultants from Public Health England will then carry out the actual screening.
Passengers will also have their temperatures taken, complete a risk questionnaire and have contact details.
Anyone who is suspected to have Ebola will be taken to hospital. Meanwhile passengers deemed to be at high risk due to contact with Ebola patients but who have no symptoms, will be contacted daily by Public Health England, the BBC said.
The health secretary has warned MPs that a “handful” of cases were expected to reach the UK before Christmas.
Around 1,000 people arrived in the UK from Ebola-hit countries in West Africa in September.
Screening will begin in Terminal 1, before being extended to other terminals, Gatwick airport and Eurostar by the end of the week.
More than 4,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have been killed by Ebola.
A spokesman for Heathrow said the welfare of “our passengers and colleagues is always our main priority”.
He added: “We would like to reassure passengers that the government assesses the risk of a traveller contracting Ebola to be low.”
The UK does not have any direct flights from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea, so people travelling from those countries would have to catch a connecting flight to the UK and could arrive at airports that are not screening passengers.
However “highly visible information” will be in place at all entry points to the UK.
The Department of Health has estimated that 85% of all arrivals to the UK from affected countries will travel through Heathrow.
