A British doctor who tested positive for Ebola while working in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been flown back to the UK and is being treated in a specialist isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in north London.
The doctor, who has not been identified, landed at RAF Northolt in west London on Thursday night and was taken by road in a convoy of emergency vehicles to the hospital’s high-level isolation unit.
It is the first confirmed case of a UK national contracting Ebola during the latest outbreak in DR Congo, which has caused more than 5,000 deaths, according to the Congolese government. More than 10,000 confirmed cases have been recorded since the outbreak began in May, and the fatality rate was reported at 48.6% at the end of last month. The outbreak is fuelled by the Bundibugyo variant of the virus. The Congolese government has approved a new vaccine.
The doctor was working in DR Congo with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which said he was infected after providing care to a patient in an isolation ward in Bulape, Kasai province. Close contacts are being identified and will be monitored for 21 days.
The medical evacuation flight was arranged as a joint effort by the UK and DR Congo governments and their international health partners, the Department of Health said.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said there are “well-established procedures for dealing with cases like this” and that the risk to the public remains low. Ebola does not spread through the air and is only transmitted through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person.
The Royal Free Hospital previously treated three health workers who were evacuated to Britain after the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014 and 2015. Only four confirmed cases of Ebola have ever been recorded in the UK, and none of them resulted in a death. Ebola cases linked to the current outbreak have also been confirmed in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda.
Source: BBC News
