Ireland has ‘low risk’ of an Ebola case, says surveillance centre

Ireland has a "low risk" of the deadly Ebola virus reaching its shores but it is possible, the head of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre has said.

Dr Darina O’Flanagan, director of the HPSC, said she was confident the protocols in place were good enough to contain the disease if it spread to Ireland.

“We have a national isolation unit in the Mater (hospital), we have guidance for general practitioners and hospitals if a case presents itself,” she said.

"Of course this is an evolving situation and we constantly review what is happening in west Africa and other countries, such as the United States and Spain, to examine the situation and see if we should amend or alter or guidance."

The outbreak in West Africa has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

A female hospital worker in Texas who treated the first man to die of Ebola in the United States was diagnosed with the deadly disease late yesterday, marking the first transmission of the virus in the country.

Sixteen people are currently being monitored for Ebola in a Madrid hospital, where nursing assistant infected with the disease, Teresa Romero, remains in a stable condition.

Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland, Dr O’Flanagan said checklists would be sent out to Irish hospitals to make sure the materials posted were being put into practice and implemented.

“I know many hospitals have already conducted (Ebola) training, some may not,” she said.

“We’ve moved into an emergency plan and activated phase one. We’ve taken people off some of the tasks they used to do and pulled them onto working on Ebola.”

“The recent cases in Spain and the US have brought it home to all of us that we all have to be prepared.”

Dr O’Flanagan said ships expected to arrive in Ireland did not have crew from affected west African countries.

She said the chance of any of those ships acquiring Ebola was “extremely remote”.

Ms O’ Flanagan said if a person returning from a west African country did not feel well they should contact a public health official so they could be monitored.