Ebola: Doctor who tested positive admitted to London hospital

Ubritish doctor who worked in the fight against the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo) was transported on Thursday to a hospital in London to receive treatment against the virus, the UK government advanced.

This is the first British patient to be removed during the current outbreak of the virus, which is lethal, and the third person to return to Europe after having tested positive for the disease.

The doctor was transported to the United Kingdom through a medical evacuation operation organised by the UK and DRC governments in partnership with international health organisations.

He was referred to the Royal Free Hospital in London, which has a high-level isolation unit, the same one used to treat patients during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa between 2014 and 2015.

Renu Bindra of the UK Health Security Agency explained that strict protocols for the prevention and control of infections are in place and that the risk to the general population is low.

In June, France confirmed a case involving a doctor, who had already recovered, who had returned from a humanitarian mission in the DRC.

Last month, a Swiss citizen, who had contracted the virus in Uganda, was taken to Geneva for treatment, while her husband, a diplomat, remained in isolation in Zurich.

The disease, which is spreading throughout some of the most remote provinces of the DRC, has infected 10,600 people, of whom more than 5,100 have died.

The outbreak reached 67 health areas in eight provinces, a significant increase over the three areas registered when the epidemic was declared in May.

“ The infection of a British health professional by Ebola is extremely worrying, but it is not entirely unexpected,” said Damien Tully, an infectious disease specialist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

“ Health professionals are at the forefront of these outbreaks, often treating patients in severe condition under extremely challenging conditions. Even with strict protection measures, accidental exposures may occur,” he added.

More than 5,100 died due to the current Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo), where nearly 10,500 cases of virus infection have already been reported, according to data updated this week by the authorities.

The mortality rate is 48.8% in this neighboring nation of Angola.

In addition, the institute pointed out that at this time there are 980 patients hospitalized or in isolation, while 2,824 people recovered from the disease and were discharged from hospital.

In turn, the contact tracking rate is 86.6%.

The epidemic in DRCongo is already the deadliest in the country's history, surpassing the one recorded between 2018 and 2020, and the projections point to the fact that it might overcome that recorded between 2014 and 2016 in West Africa, which left 28,616 cases and 11,325 dead in Guinea-Conakry, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data.

In recent weeks, cases have also been confirmed in Kenya and Nigeria – declared free after sending the only patient to Switzerland – linked to the situation in DRC, after Uganda announced on 28 July that it was free of the virus after two deaths and 20 cases.