Helen Grant MP

Ebola is a fearful infection slipping under the body’s natural protection radar while it takes hold. When our immune system eventually does kick in, it over-reacts – causing a ghastly meltdown of blood vessels and internal organs, often with fatal effect.

There is a 50% survival rate and presently no known cure.

For that reason, prevention and avoidance are a good basis for people in Maidstone and the Weald to take note of the facts about this dreadful virus – see ‘Ebola Q&A for the public – November 2014’, published by Public Health England at http:// bit.ly/1Ad7ZNG.

Thankfully, government advice says the risk of Ebola to the general public in the UK is very low, and transmission can only occur through direct contact with infected body fluids or blood.

Kent is screening for the disease at Eurostar terminals, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has stepped up special training for staff, and we have robust contingencies in place for identified cases.

But there is another reason the people of Kent should be made aware of the crisis in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone: humanitarian need.

I was inspired reading in this paper recently about Maidstone medic Andy Hall’s role in setting up isolation units in those regions. Volunteers like Andy, risking their own lives to save others, are incredibly brave and selfless.

I’m proud to say his actions are part of the leading role the UK is