The first Briton to catch the deadly Ebola virus and the only WHO worker to have contracted the same has been flown back to the UK for treatment. The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that another medic has also contracted the dreaded disease.
According to reports, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond authorized the return of the male medical worker who contracted the disease in Sierra Leone. The Boeing C-17 left Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown for Britain.
To date, the virus has killed 1427 people and the Ivory Coast has closed its borders five deaths have been reported in Nigeria.
Reports further indicate that Britain’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer John Watson said approval for the patient’s repatriation came in Sierra Leone from a team of physicians who arrived on a British specially equipped Royal Air Force cargo plane.
“We understand that this patient, during the course of the work that he was carrying out, was exposed about a week ago and became unwell two or three days ago,” Watson told Sky News in the UK.
“The patient is not currently seriously unwell,” the U.K. Department of Health said in a statement to the UK press.
The nurse will be transported to an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London, the department said.
“Protective measures will be strictly maintained to minimize the risk of transmission to staff transporting the patient to the U.K. and health-care workers treating the individual,” said Paul Cosford, director for health protection at state body Public Health England. His comments were made in a statement.
Recently two American doctors were released from Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital after they too were evacuated from Liberia and further treated with the experimental drug ZMapp.
Three additional health care workers are also receiving treatment with ZMapp but its American manufacturer Mapp Biopharmaceutical has said that supplies are very limited. It was not clear what specific role ZMapp played in the recovery of the two American doctors in Atlanta.
