Risk to public health is said to be very low
Glasgow's first case of Ebola has been confirmed in a health worker who recently travelled from Sierra Leone.
The patient was today transferred to a high level isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London. She returned to Glasgow at around 11.30pm on December 28, having travelled on flight AT596 from Freetown to Casablanca, AT0800 to London and BA1478 to Glasgow.
After becoming unwell the following morning the patient was admitted to the Brownlee Unit for Infectious Diseases at Gartnavel Hospital campus at 7.50am.
As the patient was asymptomatic during travel, the risk to other passengers on the flights is said to be very low. Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids such as blood, vomit and faeces, or with a symptomatic infected person.
As a precaution, Public Health England is in the process of contacting and monitoring all those who shared the flight from Casablanca to Heathrow. A hotline has also been set up for anyone who was on the flight between Heathrow and Glasgow: 08000 858531.
Chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies commented: "Our thoughts are with this individual who, along with other NHS and public health colleagues, has been doing a fantastic job saving lives…
"It is important to be reassured that although a case has been identified, the overall the risk to the public continues to be low.
"We have robust, well-developed and well-tested NHS systems for managing unusual infectious diseases when they arise, supported by a wide range of experts. The UK system was prepared, and reacted as planned, when this case of Ebola was identified."
Image ©Wikimedia Commons/CDC Global/CC-BY-2.0
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