British Ebola Patient 'May Be Flown To UK'

Plans are being drawn up to fly home a British person who has tested positive for the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone.

Government sources say the patient could be flown back to RAF Northolt near Heathrow before being taken to the Royal Free Hospital in north London.

A source told the Sunday Telegraph a decision on whether to fly the Briton home may be taken on Sunday, although the Department of Health would not confirm this.

Professor Tom Solomon, director of the Institute of Infection and Global Health at the University of Liverpool, said the “strains” on the healthcare system in Sierra Leone may be the reason for moving the patient.

“We do have facilities in the UK for caring for people with haemorrhagic fevers,” he said.

“There is a high-level isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London which is very well set up for things like this.

“The medical services in Sierra Leone are very strained at the minute so it may well be the case that this person is brought to the UK for treatment.”

Prof Solomon said the chances of the infection spreading are minimal, adding the patient would be transported “in what is effectively a bubble”.

It is the first confirmed case of a British person catching the tropical infection, which kills up to 90% of those who contract it.

The Foreign Office has advised Britons to “carefully assess” whether they really need to travel to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, where the current outbreak began in March.

Since then the World Health Organisation says there have been 2,615 confirmed cases and 1,427 deaths.

Medical charity Medicine Sans Frontieres has warned infections are spreading faster than authorities can handle and it could take six months to bring the outbreak under control.

Ebola is contracted through contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids and no cure or vaccine is currently available.

Professor John Watson, Britain’s deputy chief medical officer for England, insisted the risk to the public remained “very low”.

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British Ebola Patient 'May Be Flown To UK'