Ebola Hits U.K and the News is Trending

The first case of Ebola to be diagnosed on British soil has been announced, after a health worker in Glasgow was confirmed to have contracted the virus. The female patient is an NHS nurse who had just returned from Sierra Leone after a spell treating the victims of the potentially fatal disease.

 

The patient - understood to have been volunteering for Save The Children - was admitted to hospital early on Monday morning after feeling unwell and was placed into isolation at 7.50am. She is in a stable condition.

She was later transferred from Glasgow airport on a military-style plane in a quarantine tent surrounded by a group of health workers in full protection suits, bound for the Royal Free Hospital in north London. 

A statement on the hospital’s website said: “The Royal Free London can confirm that it is expecting to receive a patient who has tested positive for Ebola.

“The patient will be treated in the high level isolation unit (HLIU).” 

The UK has well-established and practised infection control procedures for dealing with cases of imported infectious disease and these will be strictly followed while the patient is in transit and receiving treatment at the Royal Free Hospital.

Alisdair MacConachie, of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: "She's being managed in an isolation facility by staff who are comfortable managing patients in such a situation. She herself is quite stable and is not showing any great clinical concern at the minute."

The risk of infection to other passengers on the flights is considered extremely low. However, as a precaution, Public Health England is arranging for all passengers and crew on the flight from Casablanca to Heathrow to be provided with health information and will be contacting and following up those passengers who were sitting in the vicinity of the affected passenger on these flights. 

 

Health Protection Scotland is carrying out a similar exercise for the passengers on the Heathrow to Glasgow flight.

The 2014 Ebola epidemic is the largest in history, affecting multiple countries in West Africa. There were a small number of cases reported in Nigeria and a single case reported in Senegal; however, these cases are considered to be contained, with no further spread in these countries.

 

Ebola Virus

Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the bodily fluids – such as blood, vomit or faeces - of an infected person while they are showing symptoms. The risk of Ebola being passed from an individual before they developed symptoms is extremely low.