Israel to conduct Ebola drill at airport on Friday

Israel will conduct an Ebola identification training exercise Friday at Ben Gurion Airport.

Officials and employees from the Population Immigration and Border Authority, airlines, Magen David Adom, the Health Ministry and the police will participate in the drill, aimed at identifying travelers who could potentially have contracted the virulent disease.

As part of the exercise, officials will be challenged to identify potential patients when they positively answer routine questions about their health and travel, and evacuate them safely from the airport to the hospital for further treatment.

A meeting of top Health Ministry officials decided this week that should any Ebola cases be detected in Israel they will be quarantined and treated at either Sheba Hospital outside Tel Aviv or at Rambam Hospital in Haifa.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held conference call Thursday to review the exercise procedures with Health Minister Yael German, Health Ministry Director Prof. Arnon Afek and director general of Ben Gurion Airport Shmuel Zakai.

Netanyahu ordered increased preparations at all points of entry into the country, including taking the temperatures of travelers arriving from affected areas in West Africa.

The move came after several people outside of West Africa, where the disease has claimed thousands of victims in the past several months, have become infected with the disease.

Two American health-care workers at a Dallas, Texas, hospital have been diagnosed with Ebola after caring for a Liberian man who died of the disease last week, and President Barack Obama’s administration has shifted into overdrive in efforts to contain the disease’s spread, instituting increased measures at several major US airports aimed at identifying potentially infected travelers.

A nurse in Spain last week became the first person known to catch Ebola outside the outbreak zone in West Africa. She had been part of a team that treated two missionaries flown home to Spain after becoming infected with Ebola in West Africa. The nurse’s only symptom was a fever, but the infection was confirmed by two tests, Spanish health officials said. She was being treated in isolation, while authorities drew up a list of people she had had contact with.

The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday that Israel will open two emergency clinics in Liberia and Sierre Leone and send an aid team to operate the clinics and train local personnel.

“The international community and Israel in particular have the tools and know-how to help communities affected by Ebola,” Prosor added. “Together, we can overcome this crisis.”

News agencies contributed to this report.