First WHO worker stricken with Ebola •Briton with Ebola flown back to UK

First WHO worker stricken with Ebola •Briton with Ebola flown back to UK


For the first time, a worker with the World Health Organisation has fallen ill from Ebola, the WHO told CNN on Sunday.

The health worker, a man from Senegal, is in Sierra Leone and receiving care, the WHO said. No further details were given immediately.

When asked how the worker contracted the virus, a WHO spokesperson said officials don’t yet know all the details.

Separately, a British citizen infected with the virus in Sierra Leone is being flown home, the British Department of Health announced on Sunday.

The man, simply identified as William, lives in the West African nation in a home established by an American university for researchers.

He is a volunteer nurse in Kenema Government Hospital, where he was working with Ebola patients, according to Dr. Robert Garry of Tulane University.

Garry is manager of the university’s program that researches Ebola. The hospital is run by the government of Sierra Leone, but receives support from Tulane researchers.

The UK government said a specially equipped C17 Royal Air Force plane would transport the patient, who would be transferred to an isolation unit at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

“UK hospitals have a proven record of dealing with imported infectious diseases and this patient will be isolated and will receive the best care possible,” said deputy chief medical officer John Watson in a press release.

Meanwhile, Ivory Coast announced Saturday that it’s closing its borders in response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Prime Minister Daniel Duncan signed the order that closes the land borders Ivory Coast shares with Guinea and Liberia.

The borders will remain closed until further notice in an effort to prevent the Ebola virus from spreading into its territory, according to the government statement.

Ebola is one of the world’s most virulent diseases, according to the WHO.

The virus is introduced to human populations through the human handling of infected animals -- like fruit bats, gorillas and monkeys, to name a few -- found sick or dying in the rainforest.

The infection is then transmitted among humans through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of infected people.

WHO’s maps of confirmed cases show the Ebola outbreak is limited to four West African nations -- Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. So far, nearly 2,500 suspected cases have been reported in what the WHO says is the worst known outbreak of the disease.

However, the WHO’s website says the survival rate for people with Ebola in this outbreak has been 47 per cent which is a substantial improvement over the disease’s survival rate, historically.

Briton with Ebola flown back to UK

A British healthcare worker who has tested positive for the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone is being evacuated to the United Kingdom (UK) on a Royal Air Force plane.

According to the Guardian, UK, the Department of Health said the man is “not currently seriously unwell” and will be flown to RAF Northolt before being brought to the Royal Free Hospital in London, which is specially equipped with an isolation unit where he can be treated.

The man, who lives in Sierra Leone, is the first Briton confirmed to have contracted the disease.

The decision to fly him home was taken at a meeting on Saturday morning involving the medical director of the NHS, Sir Bruce Keogh, the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and the foreign secretary, Philip Hammond.

A medical assessment was then carried out on the patient to see whether he was fit to fly.

“The patient is not currently seriously unwell and is being medically evacuated in a specially equipped C17 Royal Air Force plane to RAF Northolt in the UK.

Upon arrival in the UK, the patient will be transported to an isolation unit at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust,” a statement from the Department of Health said.

Prof John Watson, the deputy chief medical officer, reassured the public that the risk to the general population remained 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,” he said.

“UK hospitals have a proven record of dealing with imported infectious diseases and this patient will be isolated and will receive the best care possible.”

Dr Paul Cosford, the director for health protection at Public Health England, said protective measures will be maintained to minimise the risk of transmission of the virus.

“For Ebola to be transmitted from one person to another contact with blood or other body fluids is needed and as such, the risk to the general population remains very low,” he said.

The RAF flight took off from Freetown Lungi airport. “I saw it [the plane] sitting there for more than one hour but it has just taken off now.

Some doctors assisted the man onboard and they’ve just come back now,” an airport official said.

The restricted site at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead where the healthcare worker will be treated is equipped with specialist equipment to help contain the infection.

The bed will be surrounded by a specially-designed tent with its own controlled ventilation system and the patient will be admitted through a specific hospital entrance. Waste is decontaminated and there is a dedicated laboratory to carry out tests.

All the air leaving the unit is cleaned to minimise risk to anyone at the hospital, the hospital said.

Tom Donnatt, founder of the British charity Street Child which works in Sierra Leone and West Point in Liberia, said the spread of Ebola had spiralled from a health emergency into a “humanitarian disaster.”

He said West Point was “a tense, grim, impoverished slum at any time” and is now entirely barricaded.

“They are now totally cut off from the world with uncertain access to food and water – and a terrifying disease from which they do not fully understand how to protect themselves,” he said.

Last week, Medecins sans Frontier said that the international community was paying “almost zero” interest to the growing health crisis.