Fears continue to grow over the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa
Liberia’s government is closing down all schools across the country to stop the spread of the virus and some communities will be quarantined.
The number of people killed by the virus in West Africa has now reached 672, according to new UN figures, but health experts say outbreaks of Ebola tend to be "brutal but brief, and pretty well contained".
The US Centres for Disease Control describes the risk of Ebola spreading to the United States as "very low". That’s partly because the disease is transmitted through physical direct contact (meaning that just sitting next to an infected person on an aircraft won’t spread it).
However detection of Ebola is notoriously problematic because the symptoms closely resemble those of other more common diseases, such as malaria or even the flu.
Ethiopian Airlines said that even though the chances of being infected on-board were "close to nil", it has implemented "extraordinary measures" to ensure the safety of its customers and staff.
These measures include stringent and specific surveillance of all flights from West Africa at Addis Ababa airport.
