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UK doctor infected with Ebola being treated at London hospital

Henry Mooreand
Hugh Pym,Health editor
BBC Several emergency vehicles labelled POLICE Territorial Support Group arrive at the Royal Free Hospital in north London. It is dark outside and three police officers stand next to the closest vehicle. BBC
A large convey of emergency vehicles transported the man to the Royal Free Hospital in north London

A British doctor who tested positive for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been flown back to the UK.

The man, who has not been identified, landed at RAF Northolt before being transported to a specialist infectious diseases unit at the Royal Free Hospital in north London.

It is the first confirmed case of a UK national contracting Ebola during the most recent outbreak of the rare but deadly virus in DR Congo, which has so far led to more than 5,000 deaths.

Dr Renu Bindra, deputy director of the All Hazards Public Health Response team at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), said there are "well-established procedures for dealing with cases like this" and the risk to the public remains low.

The infected doctor was brought to the UK on a medical evacuation flight as part of a joint effort by the UK and DR Congo governments and their international health partners, the Department of Health (DoH) said.

A convoy of emergency vehicles were on hand to complete the transfer following the man's arrival at the RAF base.

Three large police vans travelled at either end of the convey, while two ambulances and another support car were involved.

Traffic was stopped and police exited the vans to keep the public away as the convey arrived at the Royal Free Hospital.

The man is now being treated in a "highly specialised" isolation unit at the hospital, the DoH said.

Reuters Police officers stand guard, as a convoy carrying a British Ebola patient arrives at the Royal Free Hospital.Reuters

The Royal Free Hospital successfully treated three health workers who had been evacuated after the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014 and 2015.

There have only been four confirmed cases of the virus in the UK - one, in 1976, resulting from a laboratory incident, and three involving health workers who were responding to an outbreak in West Africa between 2014 and 2015.

None of these cases have resulted in a death.

A small plane lands on the runway at RAF Northolt, it is dark outside and the plane is white.
The plane carrying the infected man arrived at RAF Northolt on Thursday

There have been more than 10,000 confirmed cases since the recent outbreak in DR Congo started in May, which has grown to become the second most deadly recorded spate of infections, behind the outbreak in West Africa in the 2010s.

The current outbreak in DR Congo has a fatality rate of 48.6% reported at the end of last month.

Ebola can result in serious illness and death. Early symptoms include vomiting and diarrhoea but it can progress to organ failure and internal bleeding.

The virus spreads from one person to another by contact with infected bodily fluids such as blood or vomit.

Graphic showing how Ebola attacks the human body, sourced to the WHO and Cleveland Clinic. Graphic showing how Ebola systematically attacks the human body. It explains that symptoms appear two to 21 days after contact and can worsen over time. Earlier symptoms, shown with purple circles around diagrams, include headache, fatigue, sore throat, fever, muscle pain, red or bloodshot eyes, and abdominal pain. Later symptoms, shown with red circles, include diarrhoea, vomiting, rash, internal and external bleeding (less common), and impaired kidney and liver function.

The ongoing outbreak centred on DR Congo is fuelled by the Bundibugyo variant of the virus.

There is no approved vaccine but the World Health Organization said experts have recommended adding two new candidate drugs to an ongoing clinical trial.

The vaccines, one developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, and another by the firm Moderna, will join the trial once they are approved by Congolese health authorities.

It will be the first time jabs specifically designed to protect against the Bundibugyo virus are tested during an outbreak.

Since the outbreak, Ebola cases have also been confirmed in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda.