British Ebola patient to be evacuated from DR Congo for specialist care

A British healthcare worker who has tested positive for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is being evacuated to the United Kingdom for specialist treatment. It is the first confirmed case of a British national contracting Ebola during the current outbreak, according to the BBC and The Guardian. The patient’s identity has not been released.

The Guardian, citing an official document seen by Reuters, reported that the worker was in a stable condition and was expected to arrive in the UK on Wednesday or Thursday before being taken by specialist ambulance to a high-consequence infectious-disease unit. The BBC said the timing of the flight had not been confirmed. The UK government said established procedures had been activated and that the risk to the wider public remained low.

“The UK has well-established procedures for dealing with cases like this,” a government spokesperson said. The statement did not provide further information about the patient’s condition, treatment or the organisation for which the healthcare worker was operating. The Guardian reported that a humanitarian organisation had sent the worker to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to assist with the outbreak response.

The BBC said Reuters had described the infected man as a healthcare worker, citing an internal document that the BBC had not seen. The two reports therefore differ in the basis and level of detail for identifying his role, although both describe him as a British national working in the outbreak area. The patient is expected to receive care in a specialist facility.

The Guardian listed the Royal Free hospital in London as having a high-level isolation unit and said similar centres are located in Newcastle and Liverpool, but did not specify which unit would receive this patient. Imported Ebola cases are extremely rare in the UK. The BBC said there have been four confirmed cases since 1976, with no deaths from imported cases.

The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has surpassed 10,000 cases and 5,000 deaths, according to both reports. The BBC described it as the deadliest Ebola outbreak in the country’s history and the second-deadliest recorded outbreak overall. The Guardian said it began in May and was declared by the Congolese health ministry on 15 May.

The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo variant. The BBC reported a fatality rate of 48.6% at the end of last month and said there is no approved vaccine for this variant. The World Health Organization has recommended that two candidate drugs be added to an ongoing clinical trial, while candidate vaccines developed by Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, and by Moderna, are awaiting approval by Congolese authorities for testing during the outbreak.

Cases linked to the outbreak have also been confirmed in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. The Guardian reported that Nigeria confirmed a case in Abuja after a woman arrived from Uganda, and that she and a close contact were evacuated to Switzerland. Despite the geographic spread, UK authorities continue to assess the public risk from this imported case as low, citing existing procedures for managing suspected and confirmed Ebola infections.