British patient being treated for Ebola in a Glasgow hospital

[webfact]

British patient being treated for Ebola
GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press
JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A female health care worker who has just returned from Sierra Leone has been diagnosed with Ebola and is being treated in a Glasgow hospital, Scottish authorities said Monday.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called it the first case of Ebola ever diagnosed inside the United Kingdom.

The patient flew to Glasgow via Casablanca and London's Heathrow Airport, arriving late Sunday, the Scottish government said. The health care worker was admitted to a hospital on Monday morning after developing a fever.

Sturgeon said the risk to the public is "extremely low to the point of negligible" and that pre-planned steps would be taken to protect the public.

"Scotland has been preparing for this possibility from the beginning of the outbreak in west Africa, and I am confident that we are well prepared," she said, adding that the patient is "stable" and would soon be transferred to an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

She said the patient, who is not being identified, had traveled on an internal British Airways flight from London to Glasgow on Sunday night and that the other 71 passengers and staff on that flight will be contacted.

But she said the patient was not yet showing symptoms at the time and that people in that stage are much less contagious than they are after they exhibit symptoms, which include a high fever, diarrhea and vomiting.

The patient became ill Monday morning and contacted health officials. She was soon admitted to the Brownlee Unit for Infectious Diseases at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow.

The patient had been screened for symptoms before leaving at Sierra Leone and at London Heathrow Airport, Sturgeon said.

The first minister said the patient had only had contact with one other person in Scotland and that person's health will be monitored.

The only previous victim of the often-fatal disease in Britain was William Pooley, a nurse who contracted the disease while treating patients in Sierra Leone. He recovered after treatment in London and returned to West Africa.

Prime Minister David Cameron said all measures will be taken to protect the public. An emergency meeting of the government's security committee was to be held Monday night.

Since an Ebola outbreak began in December 2013 in the West African country of Guinea, there have been more than 20,000 cases and more than 7,800 deaths, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

-- (c) Associated Press 2014-12-30

[MJP]

Months ago this thread would have attracted ten pages of worthwhile comments within an hour.

The three posts made so far have been removed for being off-topic.

Guess Ebola is no worse than the common cold now.

[SOTIRIOS]

....duh...don't they even screen health care workers in Ebola-stricken regions....before letting them board an international flight....

....it just makes no sense.....

[harryfrompattaya]

More money to be spent by NHS while seniors are denied Health Care

England is the Pits for the old White Citizens

Sorry fellows but it is good for my year relatives that loads of money when they live in England

Keep up the welfare and we keep coming

[MJP]

More money to be spent by NHS while seniors are denied Health Care

England is the Pits for the old White Citizens

Sorry fellows but it is good for my year relatives that loads of money when they live in England

Keep up the welfare and we keep coming

Seniors actually used to be denied health care Harry. Back in the 1970's when the wards had filled up, the senior house officer would declare no more antibiotics for the over seventies. Yes, that's right. So they'd die off and free up beds.

I have this on firm authority from people that worked in the NHS at the time.

The patient in this case is a returning aid/medical worker. Seems a quarantine system is desperately required for returnees.

Edited December 30, 2014 by MJP

[outsider]

They must've forgotten Thailand has the cure already. Someone please inform them.

Jokes aside, I hope the health worker recovers from this.

[Maybole]

According to local press, she was screened before leaving Sierra Leone and again on arrival in London. At those times she showed no symptoms. The disease must therefore have been its very early stages and might not even have reached a stage of being infectious.

[LennyW]

One care worker being tested in Aberdeen ad well according to the Evening Express.

[Mudcrab]

Apparently the screening in Sierra Leone and Heathrow are both insufficient.

This would indicate to some extent that Ebola virus carriers can pretty well travel anywhere without being diagnosed until symptoms arise. Not good news..

[Lokie]

NHS said no threat what so ever to public as she was showing no symtoms at time of entry, then the report (BBC TV News) said NHS Scotland was attempting to trace all passengers on the London - Glasgow flight the lady took and NHS England was tracing all passengers who arrived off the International flight from Morroco (She flew to Morroco first then onto UK) So if no danger to public etc why the F oo K do they need to trace all passengers off the two flights? Truth is they are a lot more worried about this $ hi t than they are telling us. Anyone coming in should be quarentined full stop. This is scary stuff, one or two cases, what if the numbers start to multiply??

[bunple]

Anybody suspected of being in contact with ebola should be placed in quarantine when entering the country especially health care personel, plain stupid to let them go roaming around.

[Scott]

NHS said no threat what so ever to public as she was showing no symtoms at time of entry, then the report (BBC TV News) said NHS Scotland was attempting to trace all passengers on the London - Glasgow flight the lady took and NHS England was tracing all passengers who arrived off the International flight from Morroco (She flew to Morroco first then onto UK) So if no danger to public etc why the F oo K do they need to trace all passengers off the two flights? Truth is they are a lot more worried about this $ hi t than they are telling us. Anyone coming in should be quarentined full stop. This is scary stuff, one or two cases, what if the numbers start to multiply??

They will want to notify all of the people who came in contact with her out of an abundance of caution. Ebola is not believed to be contagious until the person shows symptoms. She wasn't showing symptoms, so probably wasn't contagious. Viruses do mutate and finding everyone who was in contact with her is the prudent thing to do.

The other factor to keep in mind is that perhaps other people on the flight were coming from the same area and may be infected.

[MikeOboe57]

NHS said no threat what so ever to public as she was showing no symtoms at time of entry, then the report (BBC TV News) said NHS Scotland was attempting to trace all passengers on the London - Glasgow flight the lady took and NHS England was tracing all passengers who arrived off the International flight from Morroco (She flew to Morroco first then onto UK) So if no danger to public etc why the F oo K do they need to trace all passengers off the two flights? Truth is they are a lot more worried about this $ hi t than they are telling us. Anyone coming in should be quarentined full stop. This is scary stuff, one or two cases, what if the numbers start to multiply??

They will want to notify all of the people who came in contact with her out of an abundance of caution. Ebola is not believed to be contagious until the person shows symptoms. She wasn't showing symptoms, so probably wasn't contagious. Viruses do mutate and finding everyone who was in contact with her is the prudent thing to do.

The other factor to keep in mind is that perhaps other people on the flight were coming from the same area and may be infected.

Dear Scott,

As Ebola is adeadly disease, words like "believe" and "probably" should not be used when considering whether these aid workers ought to undergo a mandatory quarantine period. As it stands now the authorities are gambling with the lives of their citizens to avoid inconveniencing returning aid workers.

[MJP]

NHS said no threat what so ever to public as she was showing no symtoms at time of entry, then the report (BBC TV News) said NHS Scotland was attempting to trace all passengers on the London - Glasgow flight the lady took and NHS England was tracing all passengers who arrived off the International flight from Morroco (She flew to Morroco first then onto UK) So if no danger to public etc why the F oo K do they need to trace all passengers off the two flights? Truth is they are a lot more worried about this $ hi t than they are telling us. Anyone coming in should be quarentined full stop. This is scary stuff, one or two cases, what if the numbers start to multiply??

They will want to notify all of the people who came in contact with her out of an abundance of caution. Ebola is not believed to be contagious until the person shows symptoms. She wasn't showing symptoms, so probably wasn't contagious. Viruses do mutate and finding everyone who was in contact with her is the prudent thing to do.

The other factor to keep in mind is that perhaps other people on the flight were coming from the same area and may be infected.

Dear Scott,

As Ebola is adeadly disease, words like "believe" and "probably" should not be used when considering whether these aid workers ought to undergo a mandatory quarantine period. As it stands now the authorities are gambling with the lives of their citizens to avoid inconveniencing returning aid workers.

In risk management we consider the likelihood of something dire happening and the severity of the direness.

In regard to returning aid workers bringing Ebola back to the UK the likelihood is low (but not that low!) and the severity extremely dire should the worst happen, i.e., an outbreak and all the complications stemming from such an event, like economic collapse.

Thus, I do agree. Minimum 21 day quarantine prior to departure.

Edited December 31, 2014 by MJP

[Scott]

I worked in an area where there was a major cholera outbreak and the gov't in that country decided to quarantine people in the affected area. The area was reasonably isolated and quarantine was reasonably easy to institute. Except for one thing. People didn't want to be quarantined. They lied. They snuck through. They did all kinds of devious things.

It's a good solution, but it is very, very hard to implement.

[MJP]

I worked in an area where there was a major cholera outbreak and the gov't in that country decided to quarantine people in the affected area. The area was reasonably isolated and quarantine was reasonably easy to institute. Except for one thing. People didn't want to be quarantined. They lied. They snuck through. They did all kinds of devious things.

It's a good solution, but it is very, very hard to implement.

Shouldn't be hard to implement with aid/medical workers. Generally sensible people and understand the risks.

[Scott]

It shouldn't, but the operative words are 'usually' and 'sensible', but not always. Quarantine to work has to be extremely tightly controlled and it is expensive.

Medical personnel are more knowledgeable and likely to get medical attention immediately. Others may not and may endanger a lot of people before they receive treatment.

A lot depends on the number of people a country expects to deal with. Quarantine can work if the number is small and you have a way of determining who is likely to be exposed. If it's a lot of people, it becomes more cumbersome. Where do you isolate them? Do you set up a camp?

[MJP]

It shouldn't, but the operative words are 'usually' and 'sensible', but not always. Quarantine to work has to be extremely tightly controlled and it is expensive.

Medical personnel are more knowledgeable and likely to get medical attention immediately. Others may not and may endanger a lot of people before they receive treatment.

A lot depends on the number of people a country expects to deal with. Quarantine can work if the number is small and you have a way of determining who is likely to be exposed. If it's a lot of people, it becomes more cumbersome. Where do you isolate them? Do you set up a camp?

Well, the US and Blighty have poured billions I believe into setting up emergency hospitals in West Africa. Looking at the severity of the outcome if Ebola did take hold in other countries it would seem prudent to spend a few hundred thousand or even a few million on a quarantine centre for returning aid and medical workers.

[Scott]

For medical workers it might work, but quarantine should be for anyone who has been exposed.

Some countries and areas are better able to do it than others.

My experience with the use of quarantine was not particularly effective. But it depends a lot on the numbers of people who may need quarantine and their level of education/understanding of the situation. It also requires a good back up plan if it doesn't work. In one case, the biggest failure was to think that quarantine would be effective. The initial area of the outbreak was controlled relatively quickly. Field hospitals were set up and medical services were concentrated in the area. When it was not contained the remainder of the area was not equipped to deal with the problem and they fared much worse.

Quarantine is an option. It just can't be the only option.

[MJP]

What is the plan at the moment? Surely quarantine should . . . must . . . be part of the plan, especially for those potentially directly exposed.

Countries like the UK are densely populated with huge daily movements of people. Get an outbreak here and . . . well . . . ???

[Scott]

It depends on the numbers you are dealing with and the resources available. It also depends on the understanding and acceptance of those being affected. Keep in mind that you have to define what is meant by quarantine.

If you have a small number of potential infections, by health workers, supervised isolation may be the best option. They have to agree and the conditions of isolation are set forth. If you have a group or individuals who are unlikely to follow supervised isolation then quarantine maybe necessary. Quarantine requires some sort of legal conditions -- either imposed by law or health regulations. Quarantine is not necessarily voluntary.

[Lokie]

As I said, anyone coming in from high risk countries should be quarantined full stop. Once this genie is out of the bottle, well; it does not bear thinking about?

Inconveniance lol??

And we are so good at dealing with Ebola in the UK, this lady has been shunted straight back to London, so when (heaven forbid) all the isolation beds are full in that specialst hospital are full, will it be a case of the 4 hr wait in the average A&E dept...?

And if risks are low how are these health professionals contracting Ebola, they are in full space suits and still catching it? I am obviosuly missing something here yes?