British man infected with Ebola in DR Congo arrives in UK for treatment

Image source, Reuters

A British man who tested positive for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been flown back to the UK.

The man, who is a health worker and has not been identified, landed at RAF Northolt before being transported to a specialist infectious diseases unit at the Royal Free Hospital in north London.

It is the first confirmed case of a UK national contracting Ebola during the most recent outbreak of the rare but deadly virus in DR Congo, which has so far led to more than 5,000 deaths.

Speaking earlier this week, a UK government spokesperson said there were “well-established procedures for dealing with cases like this” and that the risk to the public remains low.

What is Ebola and why is stopping the latest outbreak so difficult?

The Royal Free Hospital successfully treated three health workers who had been evacuated after the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014 and 2015.

There have only been four confirmed cases of the virus in the UK – one, in 1976, resulting from a laboratory incident, and three involving health workers who were responding to an outbreak in West Africa between 2014 and 2015.

None of these cases have resulted in a death.

There have been more than 10,000 confirmed cases since the recent outbreak in DR Congo started in May, which has grown to become the second most deadly recorded spate of infections, behind the outbreak in West Africa in the 2010s.

The current outbreak in DR Congo has a fatality rate of 48.6% reported at the end of last month.

Ebola can result in serious illness and death. Early symptoms include vomiting and diarrhoea but it can progress to organ failure and internal bleeding.

The virus spreads from one person to another by contact with infected bodily fluids such as blood or vomit.

The ongoing outbreak centred on DR Congo is fuelled by the Bundibugyo variant of the virus.

There is no approved vaccine but the World Health Organization said experts have recommended adding two new candidate drugs to an ongoing clinical trial.

The vaccines, one developed by the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, and another by the firm Moderna, will join the trial once they are approved by Congolese health authorities.

It will be the first time jabs specifically designed to protect against the Bundibugyo virus are tested during an outbreak.

Since the outbreak, Ebola cases have also been confirmed in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda.

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