British Healthcare Worker With Ebola Is Being Evacuated From Congo to the UK, Government Confirms

Since Congo's health ministry declared the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak on May 15, it has grown past 10,000 confirmed cases and roughly 5,000 deaths. Today, Nov. 4, it reached a British citizen.

A UK government spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that "a British citizen currently in the DRC has tested positive for Ebola." The statement continued: "The UK has well-established procedures for dealing with cases like this, and those processes have been activated. Further information will be shared in due course as appropriate. The risk to the UK public from Ebola remains low."

It is the first case involving a British national in this outbreak.

What is known about the patient

The government has not named the patient. Reuters, citing an official document it has seen, reported that the person is a healthcare worker who was sent to Congo by a humanitarian organization to help with the response.

The same document says the patient is in stable condition. It says the patient is expected to arrive in the UK on Wednesday or Thursday and be moved by specialist ambulance to a "high consequence" infectious disease unit. The government has not publicly confirmed a flight time.

The Royal Free Hospital in London has a high-level isolation unit. Dr Damien Tully of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Uganda Research Unit named the Royal Free and the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle as the UK's two dedicated units that could take the case. The Guardian lists Liverpool as another centre.

According to Reuters, the document quotes British authorities saying they do not expect a serious public health impact in Britain and anticipate no disruption to international travel or trade.

A rare event in the UK

Only four Ebola cases have ever been confirmed in the UK. One came from a laboratory incident in 1976. Three were health workers who had responded to the West Africa outbreak in 2014 and 2015. None of the four died.

The virus spreads through direct contact with the blood, vomit or other bodily fluids of an infected person, or through contact with dead bodies. Tully said people are generally not infectious until they develop symptoms. He put the risk to the British public from a planned medical evacuation as "extremely low."

The outbreak behind the case

The outbreak is Congo's 17th since Ebola was identified. It has become the largest and deadliest in the country's history and the second largest on record, behind West Africa's. A fatality rate of 48.6% was reported at the end of October.

The virus has spread beyond Congo to Uganda and Kenya. Last month Nigeria confirmed a case in Abuja, in a woman who had arrived from Uganda. She and a close contact were evacuated to Switzerland for treatment.

Other patients have also been medically evacuated for specialist care since the outbreak began. Two went to Germany and one to the Netherlands. France reported a case in a doctor returning from a humanitarian mission.

There is no approved vaccine or treatment for the Bundibugyo strain. The World Health Organization said this week that its experts recommended adding two candidate vaccines to the ongoing trial in Congo. One was developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, the other by Moderna. They can join once Congolese health authorities approve them.

Reassurance and warning

The UK government's message is that its systems are working and the public is not at meaningful risk. Tully, who called the news "deeply concerning, but it is not entirely unexpected," backed the low-risk assessment. He said the case "does not suggest that the virus has become more transmissible or that the threat to the UK has increased."

He also pointed to the occupational hazard. "Healthcare workers are on the front line of these outbreaks, often treating severely ill patients under extremely challenging conditions," Tully said. "Even with rigorous protective measures, accidental exposures can occur."

Dr Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, took a more cautionary line in an interview with the Guardian last month. He said the outbreak's "unprecedented" spread meant it could reach the UK and other countries. "We want all countries to know that they are not safe if they don't take appropriate measures," he said, urging every continent to raise its preparedness and treatment capacity. He noted that this is the first time three African regions have been affected by Ebola.

What comes next

The patient's arrival and transfer to a high-consequence unit are the next confirmed steps, expected Wednesday or Thursday according to the document seen by Reuters. The government has said only that further information will follow "in due course." It has not said which unit will receive the patient or which humanitarian organization sent the worker.