An early Christmas present from Public Health England. During our training in York we had a very reassuring talk from PHE about how we would not be quarantined on return to the UK. Science would be used to inform guidelines on reintegration with our families and our work.

The evidence is clear: if you do not have a fever and are asymptomatic, you pose no risk of transmission. So the guidance was that we should take a few days to recover on return at the end of December, then back to work, without risk to patients unless carrying out interventional procedures.

Sadly, the ecology of fear has overtaken reason and the latest guidance has become much more draconian.

No travel, no shared accommodation, no clinical work, a fever parole officer to report to daily (yeah, that’s going to make the difference), no sex.

Hey, where’s the bunting and the brass band? Why not issue us with plague masks and bells?

I am now trying to work out how I get from Heathrow to home without flying or undertaking journeys longer than one hour. I think if I get off the train at Kings Cross, Peterborough and Doncaster, and catch the next train I will be fully compliant with the guidance. However, I will infect three trains' worth of passengers rather than just one (only kidding East Coast Mainline!).

At the Command and Control meeting this evening the army announces that because of the new local outbreak they will start house-to-house searching in Moyamba to flush out anyone who may be sick.

People are hiding their sick partly out of denial and fear of Ebola, but also because they see that they are getting poor care when they are diagnosed. One of our jobs at the hospital is to demonstrate that local patients will get the best possible care available.

MORE BLOG POSTS FROM PROFESSOR JOHN WRIGHT