Ebola hysteria grips US, children removed from school

Cape Town – Hundreds of parents reportedly removed their children from a Mississippi middle school fearing that they could get infected with Ebola after the school's principal travelled to Africa.

According to New York Times, the principal had taken a trip to Zambia, a southern African state which has not reported any cases of Ebola since an outbreak in West Africa.

In a similar incident, another case of Ebola hysteria was reported at a Maine elementary school where a teacher was barred from school after visiting Dallas, Texas, where Ebola patients have been treated.

The Portland Press Herald said this was despite the fact that the teacher had no contact with any suspected sufferers.

'Tipping point'

The teacher was placed on a 21-day paid leave of absence after parents told the school board they were concerned that she might have been exposed to Ebola during a trip to Dallas for an educational conference.

This comes as reports on Monday said European foreign ministers were gathered in Luxembourg on to try and formalise a joint EU response to combat the Ebola virus, amid diplomatic warnings the crisis has reached a "tipping point".

The ministers will meet hours after it was announced that a Spanish nurse who was the first person outside Africa to be infected had tested negative for the virus.

Ebola is transmitted through close contact with bodily fluids of a person who is showing symptoms of infection such as fever, aches, vomiting and diarrhoea, or who has recently died of the virus.

The disease has killed close to 4 500 people in West Africa.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) indicated recently that it was likely that new cases of the West African Ebola outbreak in West Africa could rise to 10 000 a week in two months if no immediate means to contain it were found.