The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has expressed concern about the HSE's contingency plans in the event of a case of Ebola being detected here.

The IMO met with the HSE on Wednesday to discuss the issue and outlined a number of concerns it has with the plans. It queried the wisdom of advising patients displaying Ebola symptoms to visit their GP ‘when GP surgeries are not the appropriate setting and advising patients to do this is potentially dangerous'.

However, the HSE has said it is not advising patients to visit their GP surgery, but rather to contact their GP.

Meanwhile, the IMO said it is imperative that sufficient numbers of hospital staff are trained to respond to infectious diseases generally, and within Emergency Departments (EDs), ‘sufficiently robust protocols for suspected cases' of Ebola need to be established.

The IMO also expressed concern about the shortage of public health doctors in general and a lack of support services for those public health doctors who are in place.

"Obviously everyone in this country hopes that the Ebola virus is a problem that we never have to deal with. But in the event that there are incidents of the virus that emerge here or scares about potential incidents, it is critical that we have arrangements and structures in place," commented IMO president, Prof Trevor Duffy.

The HSE agreed to a follow-up meeting with the IMO to discuss its response to this issue.

Meanwhile, Health Minister, Leo Varadkar, and Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, are to attend a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children today to answer questions about the risk to Ireland.

Ebola virus disease is a severe and often fatal illness. It is initially transmitted to humans from wild animals, but human-to-human transmission can then occur as a result of direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, or indirect contact with environments that have been contaminated with these fluids.

Symptoms include the sudden onset of fever, headache, sore throat, muscle pain and weakness. This is then followed by diarrhoea, vomiting, rash and impaired liver and kidney function. Internal and external bleeding, including bleeding from the eyes, can also occur.

Those affected require intensive care and there is currently no treatment or vaccine available. Where an outbreak occurs, the case fatality rate can reach 90%.

Over 4,000 people have already died from the disease, mostly in west Africa, since the current outbreak began earlier this year.