Edinburgh Airport trials Ebola emergency response
Glasgow Airport is due to hold a similar event tomorrow.
Some 80 people took part, including from airlines, police, ambulance, Scottish Government and the Home Office.
It involved a scenario where a family of four from Liberia on a Heathrow-Edinburgh flight to visit a relative showed symptoms of fever and nausea.
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An airport spokesman said: “Training and preparation are at the very heart of what we do. Dealing with an incident such as an Ebola outbreak at our airport requires the involvement of a number of organisations.
“An exercise like the one event held this morning gives all agencies, from airlines, local authorities, health boards and emergency services, the opportunity to discuss work on a scenario, and test our plans and procedures which could be implemented if the worst case scenario arose.“
Airlines taking part included Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines, which fly between Edinburgh and the Middle East, and the airport’s largest carriers, EasyJet and British Airways.
The Glasgow exercise will involve some 25 people.
An airport spokesman said: “We have robust port health procedures in place and have previously undertaken joint training sessions to ensure all responders are aware of their relevant responsibilities.
“The purpose of our multi-agency tabletop exercise is to review our procedures and ensure we are prepared for any eventuality.”
Aberdeen Airport said it had already tested its procedures for real when a ten-year-old girl of Nigerian descent arrived from Heathrow with suspected Ebola in August.
SCOTSMAN TABLET AND IPHONE APPS