UK nurse diagnosed with Ebola transferred to London hospital

A health worker who was the first person diagnosed in Britain with Ebola arrived at a London hospital from Scotland early on Tuesday for treatment after contracting the disease in West Africa. The woman arrived at the Royal Free hospital, Britain’s designated Ebola treatment centre, in an ambulance accompanied by several 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.

I’m satisfied … that the procedures, the protocols, the things that we’ve been practicing now for months and months have now kicked in.

Jeremy Hunt, UK health minister

The hospital’s ‘high-level isolation unit’ will allow doctors to treat the patient while she lies inside a plastic tent, limiting the scope for the disease, which is transmitted by contact with bodily fluids, to be passed to medical staff. Nurse Pauline Cafferkey 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. She was diagnosed with the deadly virus on Monday after developing symptoms overnight and was initially treated at Scotland’s Gartnavel Hospital.

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