A Scottish nurse who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone last year has been readmitted to an isolation unit after developing an “unusual late complication”.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) confirmed that the virus was still present in Pauline Cafferkey after her initial infection. She is not believed to be infectious.
NHSGGC said the 39-year-old nurse was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow on Tuesday after feeling unwell and was treated in the hospital’s infectious diseases unit. She has since been transferred to the isolation unit of the Royal Free Hospital in London due to an “unusual late complication” from her previous infection with the Ebola virus.
In a statement, the Royal Free said:
“We can confirm that Pauline Cafferkey was transferred from the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow to the Royal Free Hospital in the early hours of this morning due to an unusual late complication of her previous infection by the Ebola virus. She will now be treated in isolation in the hospital’s high level isolation unit under nationally agreed guidelines.
“The Ebola virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person while they are symptomatic so the risk to the general public remains low and the NHS has well established and practised infection control procedures in place.”
