Chances of Ebola coming out of Africa are 'low'

An expert on infectious diseases on Friday said that only travellers coming from two northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo provinces – where there is an Ebola outbreak – carry an extremely high risk of bringing in the disease to the SAR. Lau Yu-lung, chairman of the scientific committee on vaccine preventable diseases at the Centre for Health Protection, told an RTHK radio programme that people from the rest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) do not pose a high risk. He said the World Health Organisation had classified the risk of a global spread as low. “Under the current assessment, in Africa, particularly central Africa, the risk of the outbreak spreading is extremely high," Lau said. "However, the risk of it becoming a pandemic at the international level is low. “So I think the message to the public is that we do not have to panic.” The government has raised the outbound travel alert to “red” for the DRC, urging Hong Kong residents to avoid non-essential travel there. Lau said the move is “very appropriate” and that he does not expect any resident to head there with the alert in force. There is neither a cure nor a vaccine for the current outbreak caused by Bundibugyo virus, he said, and only a conventional public health strategy can be used to tackle Ebola. The Centre for Health Protection has set up broadcast arrangements at the airport to urge travellers who have visited the DRC or Uganda in the past 21 days to declare their travel history to officers upon arrival for further health assessments. There are also temperature checks and health screenings for passengers coming from Ethiopia – through which travellers coming from Africa usually transit. However, the move cannot absolutely prevent travellers from bringing in the disease if those who have visited the DRC or Uganda do not make that travel history known upon arrival, Lau added, or if symptoms of fever onset have yet to show. Edited by Tony Sabine