UK Ebola nurse tests negative for condition in hospital
A Scots nurse who was treated for Ebola has tested negative for the disease after being readmitted to hospital
She was taken to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital under police escort after becoming unwell.
Pauline Cafferkey, 40, is reported to be in a stable condition. Doctors treating her say there is no danger to the public.
Ms Cafferkey contracted Ebola while working as part of a UK team in Sierra Leone in 2014.
A statement issued by NHS Greater Glasgow said: “Pauline Cafferkey was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital this morning under the care of the Infectious Diseases Unit.
“Due to Ms Cafferkey’s past medical history, appropriate precautionary measures were taken whilst further investigations were carried out.
“We are pleased to report that tests for the Ebola virus are negative. She remains in a stable condition in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. We want to repeat our previous reassurance that there is no risk to the public.”
- Profile: Pauline Cafferkey
- What is Ebola?
Paramedics arrived at the nurse’s flat in Halfway, Cambuslang, on Thursday morning.
Residents told the BBC that an ambulance, escorted by police cars left the flats at about 09:30.
Police confirmed that officers had “assisted in the transfer of a patient” on Thursday morning.
‘Suffered too much’
Following news that Ms Cafferkey had been admitted to hospital, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “Sending my very best wishes to Pauline Cafferkey. She has already suffered way too much – all for trying to help others. Thoughts with her.”
Ms Cafferkey contracted Ebola while working as part of a UK team at the Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone.
She spent almost a month in isolation at the Royal Free hospital in London at the beginning of 2015 after the virus was detected when she arrived back in the UK.
Ms Cafferkey was later discharged after apparently making a full recovery, and in March 2015 returned to work as a public health nurse at Blantyre Health Centre in South Lanarkshire.
But it was later discovered that the virus was still present in her body, and she was readmitted to the same London hospital in October 2015.
She again recovered, before being treated at the Royal Free for a third time in February of this year due to a further complication related to her initial Ebola infection.
More recently, the nurse faced a number of misconduct charges by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
These were for allegedly allowing a wrong temperature to be recorded during the screening process at Heathrow on her arrival back in the UK from Sierra Leone in 2014.
The NMC’s conduct and competence panel dismissed all charges at a hearing in Edinburgh last month after being told that Ms Cafferkey’s judgement had been impaired by illness.