Tuesday, 30 December 2014

Ebola healthcare worker transferred to London unit

The patient being transferred from hospital in Glasgow
The woman arrived at the Royal Free Hospital in north London just before 08:00 GMT

A health worker who was diagnosed with Ebola after returning to Scotland from Sierra Leone has arrived at a specialist treatment centre in London.

The woman, who travelled to Glasgow via Casablanca and London Heathrow, was taken to the Royal Free Hospital.

She is understood to have been flown to RAF Northolt in a military plane after leaving Glasgow in a convoy.

Passengers on flights she took to the UK are being traced, but officials say the risk to the public is very low.

The woman left Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow just after 03:00 GMT on Tuesday.

Six police cars accompanied two ambulances as she was taken to Glasgow Airport. She has been taken to an isolation unit at the north London hospital from the RAF base in west London

UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said NHS safety measures in place were working well.

Mr Hunt, who chaired an emergency Cobra meeting on Monday evening, said 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.

Prime Minister David Cameron is chairing another Cobra meeting to discuss the matter later on Tuesday.

The patient, who had been working with Save the Children in Sierra Leone, arrived in Glasgow on a British Airways flight on Sunday but was placed in an isolation unit at Gartnavel Hospital on Monday morning after becoming feverish.



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