The trust which runs Whipps Cross Hospital has issued a warning to patients over deadly Ebola virus. 

The Leytonstone hospital is one of several in London to place notices and guidance in its accident and emergency department. 

It warns patients to advise a staff member immediately if they have travelled to Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Guinea or Liberia in the last 21 days and have a fever or high temperature. 

Chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies, from the Department of Health, has written to GPs, hospital trusts, private hospitals, pharmacists and clinical commission groups to issue guidance on identifying and managing possible cases of the virus, which has killed thousands in west Africa. 

Isolation bays have been set up in side rooms as a precaution in the event of someone showing strong symptoms, but all confirmed cases will be treated in a specialist unit at the Royal Free hospital in north London. 

In the letter issued yesterday, Professor Davies warned clinicians to remain "vigilant". 

She said: "Increasing case numbers and extended geographical spread may increase the risk for UK citizens engaged in humanitarian aid and healthcare delivery in the affected areas.

"It is unlikely but not impossible that people infected in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia 
could arrive in the UK while incubating the disease, and then develop symptoms after their 
return. 

"Although the likelihood of imported cases is low, health care providers are reminded to 
remain vigilant for those who have visited areas affected by viral haemorrhagic fever and 
who develop unexplained illness."

A spokesman for Barts NHS Health Trust, which runs Whipps Cross, added: "There is public information available at all our A&E departments. 

"We have been working closely with Public Health England (PHE), and are following the strict guidelines they have issued to hospitals and GPs across the UK. 

"While the UK has recently experienced its first ever confirmed case of Ebola, it is important to stress that the risk of any traveller to West Africa contracting Ebola is still very low."

Sudden symptoms include fever, headache, sore throat, profuse diarrhoea and vomiting, and general malaise.