A British doctor infected with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been flown home and is under treatment at London's Royal Free Hospital. The doctor is the first British national to catch the disease in an outbreak that has killed more than 5,000 people.
The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed the transfer Thursday, saying the patient was placed in the hospital's high-level isolation unit, a facility designed for exactly this kind of case.
British officials arranged the medical evacuation flight with the Congolese government and international health partners. The department said infection-control procedures governed the journey and also cover every person involved in the doctor's care.
The patient has not been publicly identified. A humanitarian organization had sent the worker to Congo to help fight the outbreak, and an official document described the patient's condition as stable ahead of the transfer.
Renu Bindra, a deputy director at the UK Health Security Agency, said the risk to the wider public remains low and that the agency and the NHS have robust protocols to prevent onward transmission. Britain has recorded only four confirmed Ebola cases since 1976.
The Royal Free is one of three British centers equipped to isolate patients with diseases such as Ebola; the others are in Newcastle and Liverpool.
A record outbreak
Congo's health ministry declared the outbreak on May 15. It is driven by the Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved treatment, although vaccine trials are under way. It is the 17th Ebola outbreak in Congo, the largest and deadliest in the country's history and the second largest ever recorded.
As of Tuesday, Congo had logged more than 10,660 cases and 5,198 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infections have also been confirmed in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and France, though Uganda declared itself Ebola-free after its last patient left care July 16.
Several patients have already been moved abroad for specialized care, including two to Germany and one to the Netherlands. A woman who tested positive in Abuja, Nigeria, after arriving from Uganda was evacuated to Switzerland along with a close contact. France's lone case was a doctor coming back from a humanitarian mission.
Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, warned last month that the outbreak's unprecedented reach across three African regions meant it could arrive in the UK. He urged countries on every continent to raise their preparedness.
We want all countries to know that they are not safe if they don’t take appropriate measures,
Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
Mohamed Janabi, the World Health Organization's regional director for Africa, praised Congo and Britain for cooperating on the evacuation. He said Congolese health authorities are continuing contact tracing and surveillance to contain any further spread.
