Glasgow nurse diagnosed with Ebola virus on return from Sierra Leone

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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A U.K. nurse, who voluntarily participated in the fight against the deadly virus, has been diagnosed with Ebola on her return to Glasgow from Sierra Leone.

The woman named as Pauline Cafferkey, was serving as a public health nurse at Blantyre Health Centre in South Lanarkshire before becoming a part of a 30-strong team of medical volunteers deployed to Africa by the British Government last month.

Mrs Cafferkey had been working with Save the Children at an Ebola treatment centre at Kerry Town, Sierra Leone. She had also worked at Freetown that is located in the dangerous Ebola “red zone”, before flying back to the U.K.

Dr Martin Deahl has told that he sat next to Mrs Cafferkey on a flight from West Africa to Scotland on Sunday night. She was placed in isolation at a Glasgow hospital earlier on Monday morning after feeling feverish.

She has been shifted from Glasgow on a military-style plane in a quarantine tent to Royal Free Hospital in north London on Tuesday to receive specialist treatment while being in a state-of-the-art isolation unit.

According to reports, she is to be offered plasma with antibodies donated by William Pooley, the nurse who was successfully treated at the same London hospital after developing Ebola in Sierra Leone.

Ms Cafferkey had been in the profession since last 16 years following her inspiration to enter the field after viewing images from the Ethiopian famine during the 1980s.

The nurse had been writing about her experiences during the volunteer work there in The Scotsman.

Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies has told the Glasgow nurse who has contracted Ebola, posed a “very low risk of infectivity for anyone else” on the flights she travelled on.

She has stated: “It is very important that people recognise the role that our volunteers are playing [in countries dealing with Ebola outbreaks] … and we hope and expect other volunteers to continue to go out”.

U.K. health secretary, Jeremy Hunt has confirmed that the government was “reviewing procedures and protocols” for all the other NHS workers in west Africa.

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