British Ebola Patient Evacuated From DR Congo to UK
A British healthcare worker who tested positive for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is being evacuated to the UK for treatment. A UK government spokesperson said on Wednesday that a British citizen in DR Congo had tested positive and that established UK procedures for such cases had been activated.
The worker was sent to DR Congo by a humanitarian organisation to help with the Ebola outbreak response. According to an official document seen by Reuters, the patient is expected to arrive in Britain on Wednesday or Thursday. From there, a specialist ambulance is due to take them to a high consequence infectious disease unit, a hospital facility designed to treat dangerous infections. The Guardian reported that the patient is in stable condition. This is the first case of a British national contracting Ebola in the current outbreak.
DR Congo's health ministry declared the outbreak on 15 May. It is the country's 17th Ebola outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, and the largest and deadliest the country has recorded. The outbreak has surpassed 10,000 cases and 5,000 deaths. On 17 May, the World Health Organization, the United Nations health agency, determined that the epidemic in DR Congo and Uganda was a public health emergency of international concern.
The outbreak has also spread to Kenya and Uganda. Nigeria confirmed a case in Abuja in a woman who had arrived from Uganda, and she and a close contact were evacuated to Switzerland for treatment. Earlier, an American who contracted Ebola in DR Congo was taken to Germany, where the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the patient was in stable condition.
In Britain, the UK Health Security Agency records four confirmed Ebola cases since 1976. London's Royal Free Hospital has a high-level isolation unit for Ebola, with other such centres in Newcastle and Liverpool. UK authorities assess the risk to the UK public from Ebola as low.
