UK public health alert over Ebola outbreak as doctors urged 'be vigilant for symptoms'

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is currently monitoring an outbreak of Ebola virus cases in Uganda.

The risk to the public in the UK is very low and there are currently no cases of the disease confirmed in the UK.

A public health alert has been issued to urge healthcare professionals to be vigilant to the symptoms in patients who have recently returned from affected areas, and to remind them of the established procedures for infection control and testing.

Ebola virus disease is a rare but severe infection. It is caused by the Ebola virus, a filovirus that was first recognised in 1976 and has caused sporadic outbreaks since in several African countries.

Health workers from the Guinean Ministry of Health prepare forms to register medical staff ahead of their anti-ebola vaccines (AFP via Getty Images)

Dr Meera Chand, UKHSA Director of Clinical and Emerging Infection, said: “UKHSA constantly monitors emerging infection threats in collaboration with partners across the world.

"We are aware of an outbreak of Ebola cases in Uganda and are monitoring the situation closely.

"The risk to the public in the UK is very low.”

It comes as a deadly virus in monkeys with Ebola-like symptoms is "poised for spillover" to humans posing the threat of a pandemic, warn scientists.

A public health alert has been issued to urge healthcare professionals to be vigilant to the symptoms in patients who have recently returned from affected area (Getty Images)

A University of Colorado Boulder team are watching the simian hemorrhagic fever virus (SHFV) closely and are appealing for vigilance as it is evoking parallels to HIV which originated in African monkeys.

The animal virus has reportedly figured out how to gain access to human cells, multiply itself and evade significant immune mechanisms we rely on to defend against an animal virus.

Writing in the journal Cell, scientists warned that this was "pretty rare".

It comes as a deadly virus in monkeys with Ebola-like symptoms is "poised for spillover" to humans (AFP via Getty Images)

So far no human infections have been reported and it is unknown what toll it would have if it leaped to a human.

But watching arteriviruses like this which develop in other animals could potentially avoid another pandemic.

Senior author Sara Sawyer, a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at CU Boulder said this virus' capabilities are unusual.

She said: "This animal virus has figured out how to gain access to human cells, multiply itself, and escape some of the important immune mechanisms we would expect to protect us from an animal virus.

"That's pretty rare. We should be paying attention to it."