Quarantine unit would be a start Ebola in Europe

Psychologically speaking, the odds on a person you know contracting ebola have suddenly narrowed. When Spanish health authorities revealed that another person was being monitored in Madrid for the dreaded disease, the threat was finally brought home to Europe’s door. So far, of the five people who have undergone tests for ebola in Spain, two have been found negative while a nurse confirmed as having caught the disease, possibly did so by touching her face with her glove after treating a priest who has died.

Inevitably, with so many Irish aid workers on the ground in Africa, the risk of it spreading to this country can no longer be discounted. With the World Health Organization expecting to find more cases among medical staff, even in developed countries, European health sources claim they are ready to combat the disease. But according to one source in West Africa, the epidemic could yet affect as many as one million people there. A truly frightening statistic.

The obvious question is whether Ireland is ready to act if if this killer virus were to reach our shores - no matter how unlikely or unthinkable that might seem.