THE Scottish nurse who is back in isolation after suffering a late complication of Ebola is in a serious condition, doctors have said.
Pauline Cafferkey was discharged from the Royal Free Hospital in London in January after almost a month of treatment for the virus, but was flown back there from Glasgow in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Bodily tissues can harbour the Ebola infection months after the person appears to have fully recovered.
An statement from the Royal Free said: “We can confirm that Pauline Cafferkey was transferred from the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow to the Royal Free London hospital in the early hours of Friday morning due to an unusual late complication of her previous infection by the Ebola virus.
“The Ebola virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person while they are symptomatic, so the risk to the general public remains low and the NHS has well-established and practised infection control procedures in place.”
People who have been in close contact with Cafferkey are being monitored by Scottish health authorities as a precaution.
The 39-year-old nurse, who is from South Lanarkshire, was diagnosed with Ebola in December after returning to Glasgow from Sierra Leone via London. She contracted the virus while working at the Save the Children treatment centre in Kerry Town.
A report from the charity in February said she was probably infected as a result of using a visor to protect her face rather than goggles.
A statement from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said Cafferkey was admitted to the infectious diseases unit at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow on Tuesday after feeling unwell.
Director of public health Dr Emilia Crighton said: “Pauline’s condition is a complication of previous infection with the Ebola virus. The risk to the public is very low. In line with normal procedures, we have identified a small number of close contacts of Pauline’s that we will be following up as a precaution.”
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “My very best wishes to Pauline Cafferkey for a speedy recovery.”
Heath Secretary Jeremy Hunt also tweeted his best wishes, saying: “Thoughts with Pauline Cafferkey today as she battles Ebola for the second time. In best poss place under care of Dr Mike Jacobs at Royal Free.”
Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, Catherine Calderwood, said everyone had worked to ensure Cafferkey had received all appropriate treatment and care prior to and during her transfer to the Royal Free.
She added: “Pauline is now being cared for in the best place possible, with specialists who have the most experience of looking after patients who have previously recovered from the Ebola virus.”
Cafferkey won an award at the the Pride of Britain Awards on September 28. She met the Prime Minister’s wife Samantha Cameron the following day at Downing Street, alongside other winners.
The nurse has said that when she became ill she had felt like “giving up” as her condition became critical. Of discovering she had the virus, she said: “Outwardly I just tried to be stoical about everything but inside, obviously, I was very frightened.”
The recent outbreak of Ebola mainly affected Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with more than 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths reported by the World Health Organisation.
Dr Ben Neuman, lecturer in virology at the University of Reading, said he thought Cafferkey’s case was only the second one in which Ebola was reported to have “reactivated”.
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