Dubai: Health ministers from across the European Union are to meet on Thursday to coordinate plans for the screening of air passengers from Ebola-hit west Africa.

Britain is the only European nation so far to introduce such measures, with screening at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and on Eurostar trains from France and Belgium.

The United States and Canada had also announced screening measures at major airport hubs to check travellers for symptoms of the deadly disease, and pressure has grown for other nations to follow their lead.

“The idea is for member states to discuss screening upon arrival in the European Union,” European Commission health spokesman Frederic Vincent told reporters.

The meeting comes as officials of the World Health Organisation meeting in Manila called the Ebola outbreak “the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times”.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said that disruption over Ebola fears can be curbed if people are adequately informed to prevent irrational moves to dodge infection.

Officials of the global health organisation “are very well aware that fear of infection has spread around the world much faster than the virus,” Chan said in a statement read out to a regional health conference in the Philippine capital.

Authorities in Madrid are preparing for “every possible” Ebola scenario as an infected nursing assistant fights for her life in a city hospital and staff monitor for further contagion.

“We are confronted with a situation that had never occurred before outside the African continent,” Health Ministry official Fernando Simon said yesterday.

Governments around the world are tightening controls to stem the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 4,000 people this year.

After Spain, the US has become the second non-African country to be facing an infection taking place within its borders.

In London, British officials warned that the UK will probably be hit by Ebola.

Dame Sally Davies issued her warning after the UK carried out a nationwide test of how the country would cope with an outbreak. The exercise lasted eight hours and involved actors across the UK simulating symptoms to test how the emergency services and government would respond.

She said: “It will not be surprising if we have spillover into this country so I would expect a handful of cases in the next few months.”

She added: “This vitally important exercise gave a very realistic test of how prepared the system is to deal with a case of Ebola. [It] included a variety of scenarios involving personnel from hospitals, ambulance services and local authorities around the country.”

Britain will begin screening for Ebola-affected passengers coming into the UK at Gatwick and Heathrow airports, as well as St Pancras Station, the arrival point for the Eurostar.

In Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered Ebola screenings at all crossings.

In the US, a health care worker has been diagnosed with Ebola after treating a patient who died of the deadly disease last week, sending officials scrambling to find the “breach in protocol” that resulted in her infection — the first case contracted on American soil.

The infected woman was among caregivers for Thomas Eric Duncan, who died on Wednesday at a Texas hospital.

A state test finding that she had Ebola was confirmed by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making it the first known case transmitted in the US.

CDC chief Thomas Frieden said his agency will investigate how a worker in full protective gear contracted the virus.

“At some point there was a breach in protocol,” Frieden said.

The worker was in close contact with Duncan and initial testing shows that the level of virus in her system is low.

At least 19 hospital staffers who dealt with Duncan during his two hospital visits were monitoring themselves for signs of Ebola.

In Los Angeles, a United Airlines flight was diverted to a remote gate after a passenger on the plane exhibited “flu-like symptoms” associated with Ebola, but it was later determined the passenger was not at risk for the deadly virus.

Before the plane had reach the airport, officials were alerted to a sick passenger on board United Flight 703 from New York, airport spokeswoman Sgt. Karla Ortiz said.

The plane taxied to an isolated gate on the far west side of LAX, away from the central terminal, Ortiz said.

“Ebola has been ruled out in this case,” said Karen May, a spokeswoman for United Airlines.

Health officials said there was no risk of Ebola infection to any of the passengers or crew on the plane.