Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

And the city’s Health Department alerted doctors and other health providers to immediately report anyone they suspect might have the disease, reports The New York Post.

“Quarantine officers” at JFK and 19 other US airports are on alert, and airline personnel are trained to spot the symptoms, which include fever, red eyes, severe vomiting, diarrhoea and internal bleeding, said a spokesman for the US Centres for Disease Control.

“If you’re a passenger on a plane and you say you’re sick, you will be met when you land by the CDC,” spokesman David Daigle told The Post.

The deaths of 57 more people from Ebola in west Africa have pushed the overall fatality toll from the epidemic to 729, the World Health Organisation says.

The 57 deaths were recorded between Thursday and Sunday last week in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, the UN health agency said in a statement overnight.

It said 122 new cases were detected over those four days, taking the total number of confirmed and likely infected cases from the outbreak so far to 1323.

WHO said the trend in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone “remains precarious with ongoing ... transmission of infection”.

Global threat ... US health officials are monitoring the Ebola outbreak in Africa but say the risk of the deadly germ spreading to the United States is remote. Picture: AP/CDC

He added that if Ebola is suspected, the patient will be quarantined and rushed to a hospital.

The city Health Department, meanwhile, urged doctors and other health care providers to be on the lookout for signs of the disease.

“The Health Department issued a health alert to providers to remind them to immediately report suspected Ebola cases,” the department said in a statement.

“We are monitoring the situation and are prepared to protect the health of New Yorkers against any infectious diseases imported into the city.”

A CDC official said during a briefing that a US outbreak is highly unlikely because the disease is difficult to contract.

Deadly ... Staff of'Doctors without Borders' staff remove the body of a person killed by viral haemorrhagic fever, at a centre for victims of the Ebola virus in Guekedou, Guinea. Picture: AFP

“While it’s possible that someone could become infected with the Ebola virus in Africa and then get on a plane to the United States, it’s very unlikely that they would be able to spread the disease to fellow passengers,” said Stephan Monroe, deputy director of the National Centre for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the CDC.

“The Ebola virus [only] spreads through direct contact with the blood, secretions, or other body fluids of ill people,” he said.

There is no vaccine or treatment for the virus, and few labs are capable of testing for it.

“There are no commercial labs I’m aware of that provide testing for Ebola virus. We have testing capability here at CDC and through the Department of Defense Laboratory at Fort Dietrich in Maryland,” Mr Monroe said.

Threat ... Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, right, demonstrates to people how to wash their hands properly in order to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus in Monrovia, Liberia. Picture: AP

The CDC has issued a “Level 2” alert for travellers, which means those in the African countries where the outbreak has occurred are urged to take extra precautions to avoid coming into contact with infected people.

Mr Daigle said the CDC could raise the alert to a Level 3, which would discourage Americans from any non-essential travel to the countries in West Africa where the virus has struck hardest.

Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, an expert in viral diseases and professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, said there is no reason for New Yorkers to panic.

“The risk of an outbreak is remote, very, very unlikely. Is it possible that someone could return to the US and that individual could infect one or two persons, but it’s not possible for there to be a widespread outbreak,” Dr Lipkin said.

Great risk ... Doctors Without Borders personnel work in the facility in Kailahun, Sierra Leone where Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan died on July 29 after risking his life to treat Ebola patients. Picture: AP

The Ebola outbreak has sickened more than 1200 and killed at least 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and Lipkin said the outbreak in Africa could grow far more deadly as the disease is spread.

“I’m not worried about the US. I’m worried for the people in Africa. This is indeed the worst outbreak that we’ve seen. It’s a humanitarian nightmare, but the risk is there, not here,” he said.