Ebola alert issued to Dutch doctors

The National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM) has alerted GPs, specialists and Municipal Health Services (GGD's) to the threat of Ebola, and asks them to keep an eye on people with fevers, as this could warrant an Ebola check, the Algemeen Dagblad reports today. The institutions have been asked to check if the patients have been on holiday to West Africa region. Travelers from countries where Ebola has been verified have had to face controls at Schiphol with infrared cameras. They are also asked to give the contact information of possible ebola patients, according to Jaap van Dissel of the Counter-Infection Center of the RIVM in the paper. The GGD is also sharing out flyers at Schiphol to travelers to and from NIgeria, where four people have died. The country is also served with direct flights. According to Van Dissel, the RIVM frequently receives phone calls from Dutch people worried about the spread of the disease in The Netherlands. Two patients in Belgium and The Netherlands who had an Ebola scare may not be infected with the deadly disease after all. Van Dissel assures people that the chance of Ebola spreading to The Netherlands is "almost nil", though the possibility should not be ignored. Ebola is only contagious in the symptoms stage of the disease. The incubation period of Ebola after an infection can last three weeks, which means that patients should be quarantined for this period. Countries where Ebola has been recorded; Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, execute thorough screenings at border crossings as well as sea- and airports. Ivory Coast has canceled all flights from these areas, and Cameroon shut the border with Nigeria yesterday.