Ebola screening for travellers entering the UK will give a false sense of security, experts warn, as the Government denies an apparent U-turn over the tests.
No 10 says "enhanced screening" will be brought in within days at Gatwick and Heathrow airports as well as Eurostar terminals, after previously insisting it would be ineffective and impractical.
But it is believed testing for signs of fever using a thermal detector will not be routine as it is in America, which announced its own beefed-up screening earlier this week.
Instead, travellers entering the UK will be asked about their "recent travel history" and who they have been in contact with.
A medical assessment will only be carried out if questioning throws up concerns.
However, there are fears some people may lie about their movements to avoid a delay, especially if they are feeling well.
Experts say that even with thermal scanning, the process has major flaws because people infected with ebola may not show symptoms for several weeks.
"This is a disease which has an incubation period up to 10 days," Professor Tom Solomon, Director of the Institute of Infection and Global Health, told Sky News.
"If people have symptoms when they leave a country in West Africa that will be picked up.
"There's very little to be gained by doing it again 10 hours later when they arrive in the UK."
David Mabey, professor of communicable diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, labelled the screening a "complete waste of time".
"There won't be anyone coming from these (West African) countries because all direct flights have been cancelled," he said.
"Are they going to screen everyone from Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam? That would lead to a lot of delays and disruption."
Tropical diseases expert Professor David Heyman added: "People can cross the border while in the incubation period - as in the US - where a patient entered with no fever, no signs of ebola, and four days later became sick."
That patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, was the first person to be diagnosed with ebola in the US and died earlier this week.
Direct flights to the UK form Sierra Leone and Liberia - the countries worst hit by ebola - have been cancelled.
Other travellers from West Africa are likely to be funnelled into a separate queue at customs, but others from the region could slip through the net if they change flights in Europe.
There has been confusion over the Government's stance, with conflicting messages from the Department of Health, Chancellor George Osborne and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon.
The Department of Health initially said it had no plans for screening, while Mr Fallon said existing policy was in line with WHO advice that exit screening was best.
But Mr Osborne insisted the Government was simply reacting to the latest advice from its Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, who yesterday said it was right to consider further measures.
"We are changing the very best medical advice in a fast-changing situation... You would expect us to follow the best medical advice to protect the British people," he told Sky News.
Hospitals in London, Sheffield, Liverpool and Newcastle have been chosen as specialist centres to deal with any cases.
Meanwhile, a British man who died in Macedonia after showing ebola-like symptoms is not thought to have had the virus, according to Public Health England.
A Spanish nurse with the virus - the first person to have caught ebola outside Africa - remains in hospital in Madrid.
America's top health official, Tom Frieden, has said the outbreak could become as deadly as AIDS.
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