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| The secured ward where infected British citizen will be treated for Ebola Virus disease. |
There has been a first British citizen infected with the Ebola Virus.
The British charity worker infected by the deadly ebola virus sweeping through West Africa is to be flown home in a
desperate bid to save his life.
The man, the first Briton to contract the disease outside the laboratory, will be transported by the RAF from Sierra Leone, where 392 people are known to have died of the virus this year. The evacuation will take place today or tomorrow.
The decision to fly him back was taken yesterday after a top-level meeting during which Ministers concluded there was ‘no risk’ that the repatriation would trigger an outbreak in the UK.
Surprisingly,some comments on social websites has asked for the man to be left in Sierra Leone cos he volunteered to go there himself.They suggested it was not right for other Britons to be put at risk because of this man.But once again Health and Government officials have said he is of no risk to other British citizens.
A military aircraft was last night being equipped with a specially designed isolation tent, and infectious diseases experts were on standby to oversee the emergency evacuation.
Few details have emerged about the man’s identity, but it is understood he is a medic working for a British charity on the front line of the battle against ebola.
He will be flown into RAF Northolt near Heathrow in West London then driven across the capital by London Ambulance Service to North London and the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead Heath – the only hospital in Britain equipped to treat an ebola patient and contain the virus.
Experts believe that if the man stays in Sierra Leone he will almost certainly die, because its hospitals are so poorly equipped.
Two American volunteers who contracted the virus in Liberia were recently flown back to the US for treatment, and have recovered.
Last night the medical director of the NHS said there was no reason for the British public to be afraid.