Scottish Woman Diagnosed with Ebola in Britain

A health employe who had been working in West Africa returned to Scotland infected with the Ebola virus. The woman past airport screenings in London Heathrow Airport, even though she was carrying the virus. Tuesday she was transferred to a London hospital, where she can receive treatment for the disease. Authorities reported that two more other suspected persons were tested for the virus.

The numerous cases of travelers from countries highly affected by Ebola, made British authorities to wonder about the security of their screenings in British airports. Passengers coming from Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia have to be checked for specific symptoms, such as high temperature.

The patients diagnosed with Ebola in Scotland, was identified as Pauline Cafferkey. The woman returned to Glasgow, Sunday, after working in Africa since November with the charity Save the children from Sierra Leone.
British officials are trying to get in contact with other people who were on the same flight as the woman, from Casablanca, Morocco to London Heathrow Airport.
Ms. Cafferkey was flown brought to a hospital in London, on Tuesday, in a plane equipped with a quarantine tent. She will be receiving treatment at the Royal Free Hospital in North London. At this hospital was treated the first British patient with the Ebola virus, William Pooley. He had gotten the virus from Sierra Leone and after the treatment he recovered completely.
Until being brought to London, the woman had been held in an isolated unit for infectious diseases at the Gartnavel General Hospital in Glasgow.

Ms. Cafferkey reported feeling ill on Monday. Authorities said that Tuesday the woman’s condition was stable.
She was part of a team of 30 people who were trained as health volunteers, and last month they traveled to Sierra Leone.

Dr. Martin Deahl, one of the person’s returning on the same flight with ms. Cafferkey, said that he found the health team working in Heathrow Airport to be extremely disorganised and that they should have taken precautionary measures before letting the woman proceed to Glasgow.

“If there had been alternative arrangements for poor Pauline, an awful lot of people on that flight to Glasgow wouldn’t be going through the anxiety and the stress that I am sure they are going through at the moment,” he said.

Jeremy Hunt, British secretary of health said that the government has been doing everything possible to protect the health of citizens. But, they will re examine the airport procedures for workers coming from Sierra Leone.
Image Source: Mirror