UK doctor with Ebola treated at Royal Free Hospital — SkimNews
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- RAF Northolt received the doctor's medical evacuation flight, a joint operation by the UK and DR Congo governments with international health partners; three police vans, two ambulances and a support car then escorted him through London with traffic stopped and police holding back the public.
- Royal Free Hospital is treating him in a "highly specialised" isolation unit at its specialist infectious diseases unit in north London — the first confirmed case of a UK national contracting Ebola during the current DR Congo outbreak.
- UK Health Security Agency deputy director Dr Renu Bindra said there are "well-established procedures for dealing with cases like this" and that the risk to the public remains low.
- Democratic Republic of Congo: the outbreak that began in May has produced more than 10,000 confirmed cases and more than 5,000 deaths, with a 48.6% fatality rate reported at the end of last month — the second-deadliest recorded Ebola outbreak, behind West Africa in the 2010s.
- World Health Organization experts recommended adding two new candidate vaccines — one from the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, another from Moderna — to an ongoing clinical trial once Congolese health authorities approve them, the first jabs designed specifically against the Bundibugyo variant tested during an outbreak; no vaccine is currently approved.
- Royal Free Hospital's track record includes successfully treating three health workers evacuated after the 2014-15 West Africa outbreak; those three and one 1976 laboratory incident case make up the UK's only four confirmed Ebola cases, none of which resulted in death.
Why it matters: UK health officials have a proven playbook: the Royal Free's isolation unit treated three evacuated health workers after 2014-15, and none of the UK's four confirmed cases has ended in death. The outbreak itself is grimmer — more than 10,000 confirmed cases in DR Congo, a 48.6% fatality rate, and no approved vaccine for the Bundibugyo variant.
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