Not long after the first week since March 2014 without any new confirmed Ebola cases (World Health Organization (WHO) Ebola situation report from the 7th of October 2015) several sources across the world including the Royal Free London hospital report that nurse Pauline Cafferkey who previously contracted Ebola in December 2014 has been flown by military aircraft from Scotland to the isolation ward of the Royal Free Hospital in London. The Ebola virus has been detected in her body despite the previous recovery ending in January 2015 and she is now in a serious medical condition.
Royal Free hospital statement:
Pauline Cafferkey is in a serious condition.
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.
In May 2015 US doctor Ian Crozier was discovered to still have Ebola virus in his eye fluid despite being thought to have made a full recovery. There are no details on whether the same is the case with nurse Cafferkey.
In the article from the Telegraph doctor Nathalie MacDermott of Imperial College London explained that there are cases of acute eye inflammation in the Ebola hit areas of Africa and that it has not been possible to test those for the Ebola virus yet. The article has more details and quotes on lasting Ebola infection and related health problems in survivors.
According to the WHO there has been 28421 likely cases of Ebola with 11297 reported deaths (numbers taken from the previously linked report) and thus it is likely tPost too long. Click here to view the full text.