Epidemiological update: outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa
On 29 December 2014 the Scottish government announced a case of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in a returning health care worker, the case returned to Scotland from Sierra Leone late Sunday night via Casablanca and London Heathrow, arriving into Glasgow Airport on a British Airways flight at around 11:30 pm on 28 December 2014.
She was admitted to a specialist Brownlee Unit for Infectious Diseases on the Gartnavel Hospital campus hospital early Monday morning after feeling unwell and was placed into isolation at 7:50 am. All possible contacts with the patient are now being investigated and anyone deemed to be at risk will be contacted and closely monitored. However, having been diagnosed in the very early stages of the illness, the risk to others is considered extremely low.
Following procedures in the UK and Scotland, anyone diagnosed with Ebola will be transferred to the high level isolation unit in the Royal Free hospital, London.
The eighth update of the ECDC Rapid Risk Assessment [2] provides options for risk reduction and underlines the need to prepare for the early detection and appropriate management of cases who may arise among returning travellers after an asymptomatic incubation period of up to three weeks.
The probability of sustained chains of EVD transmission in the EU is low due to the capacity of Member States to identify suspected cases, perform laboratory testing, isolate and treat EVD patients and to conduct contract tracing.
- The Scottish Government. Confirmed Ebola case in Glasgow 2014, 29 December 2014. Available from: http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Ebola-case-1414.aspx
- European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa- rapid risk assessment- Eighth update, 18 November 2014 2014. Available from: http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications/Publications/Risk-assessment-Ebola-haemorrhagic-fever-Zaire-ebolavirus-Sierra-Leone-Liberia-Guinea-Spain-United-States.pdf
