UK Ebola patient moved to London as two more tested in Cornwall and Scotland
LONDON —The Scottish nurse who contracted Ebola in west Africa has been transferred to a specialist unit in London.
The patient arrived at the Royal Free Hospital in North London Tuesday morning, having been flown in a military plane from Glasgow, the BBC reports.
She’s been taken to the same high level isolation unit that treated British nurse William Pooley earlier this year.
The unidentified nurse had returned to Scotland from Sierra Leone via Casablanca to London Heathrow on Royal Air Maroc, then from Heathrow to Glasgow on a British Airways flight, arriving at around 11:30 p.m. Sunday night. A telephone helpline has been set up for anyone travelling on those flights, the number is 08000 858531.
Dr Alisdair MacConacchie, a consultant in infectious diseases for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Consultant, was among the team treating the patient. “She [is] quite stable and not showing any great clinical concern at the minute,” he said, adding that she had had no contact with other parts of the NHS.
Two more patients are being examined for possible symptoms in the UK, one at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, Cornwall, and another at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt chaired an emergency Cobra meeting Monday night and said that the government was doing “absolutely everything it needs to” to keep the public safe.
“We are also reviewing our procedures and protocols for all the other NHS workers who are working at the moment in Sierra Leone,” he added.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon chaired a meeting of the Scottish Government Resilience Committee on Monday and said that the risks are negligible.
Ebola case. Public health experts have emphasised risks are negligible. Helpline for anyone on the Heathrow to Glasgow flight: 08000 858 531
— Scottish Government (@scotgov) December 29, 2014
Since the Ebola outbreak began a year ago in West Africa, there have been nearly 20,000 cases and more than 7,500 deaths, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
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