A British aid worker infected with Ebola is being evacuated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Kingdom for treatment, according to an official document seen by Reuters. The patient is stable and is expected to arrive on Wednesday or Thursday before being transferred by a specialist ambulance to a high-risk infectious diseases unit.
A UK government spokesperson confirmed that a British citizen in the country had tested positive for Ebola. Authorities do not expect the case to have a significant impact on public health in the UK and anticipate no disruption to travel or international trade. They say the risk to the public remains low.
The patient’s identity has not been disclosed. They were sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo by a humanitarian organisation to help respond to the outbreak. The World Health Organization said it had supported medical evacuations at the request of partner organisations and governments, but referred Reuters to UK authorities for further details.
This is the first British case linked to the current outbreak, although people from other European countries have also been infected. Switzerland evacuated an Ebola patient from Nigeria last month, while France reported in June its first confirmed case connected to the outbreak: a doctor returning from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Ebola is a severe viral disease transmitted through direct contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids. The World Health Organization says it kills about half of those affected on average, although fatality rates vary between outbreaks.
UK health authorities say the National Health Service has protocols for managing suspected and confirmed infections. Imported Ebola cases are rare: the UK Health Security Agency has recorded four since 1976. The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the second largest on record, with more than 10,000 confirmed cases and nearly 5,000 deaths reported by the end of October.
Sources: El País Sociedad.