Pauline Cafferkey placed in isolation again over Ebola scare

It said that Cafferkey had been admitted early Friday “due to an unusual late complication of her previous infection by the Ebola virus”. She was transferred from Glasgow to the Royal Free Hospital in London – where she was treated after being flown back to the United Kingdom previous year – last night as a precaution.

Ms Cafferkey’s temperature was tested seven times before she flew from Heathrow to Glasgow in December, and she was cleared for travel. “She is an extremely fearless woman and I wish her the very best in her recovery”.

She was placed in an isolation unit at Glasgow’s Gartnavel Hospital after becoming feverish, before being transferred by an RAF Hercules plane to London on December 30. Ms Cafferkey was in a critical condition while in isolation at the hospital before making a full recovery.

She is understood to be in a serious condition, but chances of contagion remain low, health chiefs said. But in January, she was discharged, with British Prime Minister David Cameron among those tweeting his congratulations. “She acquired a visor that was the same as the one which she had used in her initial training, but that was not used by Save the Children”.

Crozier’s and Cafferkey’s situations are rare, but board-certified infectious disease specialist Amesh A. Adalja, MD, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, tells Yahoo Health that experts have discovered that there are lingering – and often serious – symptoms from the disease for survivors. The hospital said she was being treated in its isolation unit. She was isolated in a London hospital for “several weeks at the Royal Free Hospital”, before being diagnosed free from the virus.

According to the World Health Organization, there have been 11,297 deaths, and 28,421 confirmed, probable and suspected cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the most affected countries, since the outbreak began. The hearing loss could result from brain inflammation or very low blood pressure for an extended period, both caused by Ebola.

“If it truly does turn out that she has Ebola 10 months [later] without any further exposures, that would be surprising to us”, Mehta says, “And I believe [it] would be the first time that we’ve ever found a relapsed case of Ebola”.

Ebola can easily be transmitted through close contact or direct contact with blood and exchange of bodily fluids.