AIRLINE passengers will be subject to enhanced screening for Ebola at Britain's biggest airport from today as UK ministers insisted "vigorous steps" were being taken to prevent the deadly virus reaching the country.

Screening and monitoring, including temperature monitoring and a questionnaire, are to take place at Heathrow's Terminal 1 before they are expanded to cover Gatwick airport and Eurostar rail terminals by the end of next week, It comes as the death toll in west Africa reached more than 4,000.

The measures were announced by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in a statement to MPs yesterday.

He said: "Playing our part in halting the rise of the disease in west Africa is the single most important way of preventing Ebola affecting people in the UK.

"Whilst there are no direct flights from the affected region, there are indirect routes into the UK."

Over the next week, health chiefs in England will start screening and monitoring UK bound air passengers identified by the Border Force coming on to the main routes from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Mr Hunt said this will allow "potential Ebola virus carriers" coming into the UK to be identified, tracked and given rapid access to expert health advice should they develop symptoms.

From today, the measures will be in place at the main terminal of Heathrow.

By the end of next week they will be expanded to other terminals at the main London airport and Gatwick, and the Eurostar, which provides links to Paris and Brussels-bound arrivals from west Africa.

Screening and monitoring at Heathrow, Gatwick and the Eurostar should ensure 89% of people travelling to the UK from the affected region on tickets booked directly to the UK are checked.

The checks could be extended to Birmingham and Manchester if the risk level increases.

However, the Government believes there will be fewer than 10 cases of Ebola in the UK over the next three months.

Mr Hunt warned the situation will get worse before it improves, telling MPs a "handful of cases" would be diagnosed in the country in that period.

He would not give an exact number when challenged by shadow health secretary Andy Burnham.

Mr Hunt explained the phrase "handful of cases" would not have been used if it was believed the number would reach double figures in the next three months.

He added the public health risk is considered to be low.

There have been 4,033 confirmed deaths from Ebola and 8,399 suspected cases of Ebola recorded in seven countries - with Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia the worst affected.

Mr Hunt said 659 front-line NHS staff and 130 Public Health England staff have volunteered to go to Sierra Leone to help British efforts to combat the outbreak.

The UK is spending £125 million in West Africa to help provide more than 700 beds and train to 120 health workers a week, MPs heard.

They were also told Britain has deployed 750 military personnel plus vehicles and equipment.

Mr Hunt said the Government was doing everything to help bring forward the development or a vaccine.

There are 14 people in quarantine in Madrid, including four health workers who treated Spanish nurse Teresa Romero Ramos, who contracted Ebola from a patient from Sierra Leone.

US health chiefs have no idea how a nurse in Texas contracted Ebola even though she used protective equipment when treating a Liberian who died of the disease in Dallas last week. She is said to be in a 'stable' condition.