A British man undergoing treatment for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo is being evacuated to the United Kingdom, the government announced Thursday. The individual, believed to be a healthcare worker, marks the first British patient to be repatriated from the current outbreak.
He is expected to be taken to the Royal Free Hospital in London, which has a high-level isolation unit that was previously used during the 2014-2015 West Africa Ebola outbreak. The Foreign Office stated that the UK's procedures for dealing with infectious diseases have been activated and assessed the risk to the public as low.
This evacuation follows similar instances of European countries receiving patients from the outbreak. In June, a doctor who had returned from a humanitarian mission in Congo was confirmed to have Ebola in France and has since recovered. Last month, a Swiss woman, believed to have contracted the virus in Uganda, was medically evacuated to Geneva for treatment, while her husband, a diplomat, was held in isolation in Zurich.
The Ebola outbreak in Congo has been ongoing, affecting remote provinces. According to reports, the disease has infected over 10,600 people and caused more than 5,100 deaths across 67 health zones in eight provinces since it was declared in May.
Dr. Damien Tully, an infectious disease expert at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, commented on the situation, stating that the infection of a British healthcare worker is concerning but not entirely unexpected. He highlighted that healthcare workers are often at the forefront of outbreaks, treating severely ill patients under challenging conditions, and accidental exposures can occur even with protective measures.