EBOLA CASE IN UK: Briton Who Contracted EBOLA Is Being Flown Back To London Isolation Center From Sierra Leone

 London High Security Infectious Disease Unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London

A British man with ebola is on his way to a London isolation unit this afternoon after being flown back to Britain from Sierra Leone.

The charity worker was being evacuated back to the UK on board a Royal Air Force jet, Sierra Leone's health ministry has said.

He will be taken to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead Heath, north London – which has an isolation unit and is equipped to treat an ebola patient.

The Department of Health said today that the man is 'not currently seriously unwell.'
Deputy chief medical officer John Watson, said experts are 'assessing the situation to ensure that appropriate care is delivered.'
It is the first confirmed case of a Briton contracting the deadly virus, for which there is no cure, during the recent outbreak in West Africa.

Sidie Yayah Tunis, director of communications for Sierra Leone's health ministry, said the man has been transported to the main airport in the coastal town of Lungi and will fly to Britain today.
Mr Tunis said the male patient, who has not been identified, was volunteering at a clinic in Kenema district in the east of Sierra Leone, one of the worst affected areas where 303 people have been diagnosed with the disease.
The decision to bring him to the UK was taken yesterday after a top-level meeting during which Ministers concluded there was ‘no risk’ that the repatriation would trigger an outbreak in this country. 

It is understood that the man had been working in Sierra Leone, where 392 people are known to have died of the virus this year. 
The emergency evacuation is being overseen by infectious disease experts, and the RAF jet has been fitted with a specially designed isolation tent.

He will be flown into RAF Northolt near Heathrow in West London then driven across the capital by London Ambulance Service to the Royal Free Hospital.
Experts believe that if the man had remained in Sierra Leone he would have almost certainly have died, because its hospitals are so poorly equipped.
The World Health Organization is also considering medical evacuation for another international health worker who has become infected in Sierra Leone.

SECURE WARD WHERE HE'LL FIGHT FOR LIFE 

Britain's first ebola patient will be treated at the country’s only High Secure Infectious Disease Unit (HSIDU), at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, North London.

It contains just two beds in a ward large enough to normally fit 20. The medic will be wheeled in, enclosed in the same isolation tent used to transport him from Sierra Leone, to minimise contamination risk.

Expert: Dr Stephen Mepham will be among the medics treating the ebola patients

The unit contains an array of special equipment to ensure he does not pass on the virus – including a ‘negative pressure’ air flow to make sure no virus particles escape either the tent or the room itself.

He will be treated by a specialist team including infectious diseases consultant Dr Stephen Mepham. 

The nationality of the infected WHO employee has not been given.

The two cases highlight the risks facing health workers on the front lines of the battle against Ebola.

'This is the first time someone working under the aegis of WHO has fallen ill with the disease,' the WHO said in its statement, adding that more than 225 health workers have been infected and nearly 130 have died from Ebola during the current outbreak. 

Two American volunteers who contracted the virus in Liberia were recently flown back to the US for treatment, and have since recovered.

Last night the medical director of the NHS said there was no reason for the British public to be afraid. 

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh said: ‘We have prepared rigorous plans for this type of situation.

‘This individual will pose no risk to the public, and only the tiniest risk to those who those who come into direct contact with him.

‘Ebola is not an airborne virus and can only be transmitted through bodily fluids such as blood, vomit, sweat and diarrhoea.’

The decision to fly the British man home was taken yesterday morning in a meeting involving Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Sir Bruce and Number 10.

The ebola outbreak, which has ripped through Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia in West Africa, is by far the biggest ever recorded.

So far there have been 2,615 confirmed cases and 1,427 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and casualties continue to mount by the day.

Dozens of British volunteers are thought to be working with ebola patients across the region. Although they wear full biological protection suits and are highly trained in infection control, they run the risk every day of catching the killer disease.  

Source Daily Mail UK