Ebola Scare: Passenger on UK Flight Tests Negative But Fears Rise Over 'Terror' Threat From Virus

Britons can breathe easy for now as the Department of Health announced negative Ebola results for the elderly woman from Sierra Leonewho collapsed and died at Gatwick airport on Saturday.

The woman was a passenger on a Gambia Bird flight.

A Department of Health spokesperson said that the test done though the passenger's symptoms did not indicate Ebola infection because she had travelled from West Africa.

Dr Brian McCloskey, director of global public health at Public Health England (PHE), said: "The correct procedures were followed to confirm there was no reason to quarantine the airplane, the passengers or staff. PHE can confirm there was no public health risk around the sad death of this individual."

Terror Threat
Meanwhile, media reports in the UK are stoking the Ebola scare by talking of a terrorist threat from the virus.

Reports in The Sun quoting Dr Peter Walsh, a biological anthropologist from Cambridge University, talk of "serious risk that a group manages to harness the virus as a powder, then explodes it in a bomb in a highly populated public area. It could cause a large number of horrific deaths".

The scientists said that despite tight security at advanced research facilities handling the virus, it would be possible for terrorist groups to get samples of infected material directly from West Africa.