Sir, – I am personally aware of several people who have travelled from Ebola-endemic areas of west Africa in recent days to east Africa and onwards to European destinations, including Ireland, with little difficulty. Given Ebola’s varied incubation period of two to 21 days, when cases are still infective, such relaxed travel procedures are worrying.
The World Health Organisation believes that the current epidemic is under-reported and the extent of its spread underestimated.
Certainly there is not enough evidence about the epidemiology of this disease to warrant the confidence expressed by many health agencies with responsibility for the protection of the public.
Given that the Ebola I virus has shown a remarkable ability to survive in different environments since its first onset in 1976, it is entirely possible that a strain of the virus suited to an urban high population density setting, rather than its current rural low density population, could evolve. Improved health surveillances at our national ports would be prudent and should be more visible and more rigorous. – Yours, etc,
Dr VINCENT KENNY,
Glenvara Park,
Knocklyon,
Dublin 16.