A health worker who has become the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in Britain was being treated at a London hospital today after contracting the disease in West Africa.
The woman reportedly arrived from Scotland at the Royal Free hospital, Britain’s designated Ebola treatment centre, in an ambulance accompanied by police vehicles.
«The latest update we have on the condition of the patient is that she is doing as well as can be expected in the circumstances,» Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said.
British media named the patient as Pauline Cafferkey, a nurse with 16 years’ experience who normally worked at a Scottish health centre. Officials could not confirm the patient’s identity for confidentiality reasons.
The London hospital’s ‘High-level isolation unit’ will allow doctors to treat Cafferkey while she lies in a plastic tent, limiting the scope for the disease, which is transmitted by contact with bodily fluids, to be passed to medical staff.
The World Health Organization said yesterday that the number of people infected by Ebola in the three West African countries worst affected by the outbreak — Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea — had passed 20,000, with more than 7,842 deaths so far.
Cafferkey, a National Health Service worker who had been working in West Africa with the charity Save the Children, flew from Sierra Leone to Glasgow late on Sunday on a British Airways flight via Casablanca in Morocco and London’s Heathrow.
Health officials said she was screened for a high temperature with other returning health workers at Heathrow but showed no signs of fever. She requested further screening at the airport but six subsequent checks were within normal levels.
She was diagnosed with the virus on Monday after developing symptoms overnight and was initially treated at a Scottish hospital.
Local media said she is in her late 30s and had been working in the Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre outside Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.
Authorities said Cafferkey was diagnosed early, meaning the risk to others was extremely low, but they were investigating all possible contacts with her.
«I’m satisfied … that the procedures, the protocols, the things that we’ve been practising now for months and months have now kicked in,» health minister Jeremy Hunt said.
Britain began screening passengers from West Africa for symptoms of Ebola in October. Hunt said then that he expected to see «a handful» of cases arriving in Britain.
Earlier this year the Royal Free hospital successfully treated another British aid worker, William Pooley, who was flown home after being diagnosed with the virus in Sierra Leone.
England’s Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies said blood plasma donated by Pooley during his «recovery phase» could be used to help treat Cafferkey.
Officials said three other patients were being tested for Ebola.
One was described by Sturgeon as a «low probability» case in Scotland who had returned from West Africa but had no known contact with the disease. The health service said the second possible case was in Cornwall, England, and details were available on the third.
Around 200 people have been assessed or tested for the virus in recent months, Paul Cosford, Director for Health Protection at Public Health England, the government body handling Britain’s response to Ebola, told the BBC.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald