Medindia LOGIN REGISTER
Medindia

Ebola Test Negative in the Two Britains

by Himabindu Venkatakrishnan on Dec 31 2014 9:05 PM

Ebola test was found negative in two patients who recently returned from west Africa in Britain on Wednesday amidst mounting calls for a review of airport screening procedures.

 Ebola Test Negative in the Two Britains
Ebola test was found negative in two patients who recently returned from west Africa in Britain on Wednesday. Calls had mounted for a review of airport screening procedures after a case was confirmed this week.
The two had been tested separately at hospitals in Aberdeen in Scotland and Cornwall in southwest England.

The patients were unconnected to the only diagnosed case in Britain -- Pauline Cafferkey -- a volunteer nurse who contracted the disease while working at an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone.

Cafferkey was being treated at the Royal Free Hospital in London, which has the only isolation ward in Britain specially equipped for Ebola sufferers.

The nurse raised concern about her temperature to airport officials when she returned to London from Sierra Leone via Casablanca in Morocco on Sunday.

Her temperature was taken at London Heathrow Airport but did not raise alarms and she was cleared to take a connecting flight home to Glasgow.

She was eventually diagnosed with Ebola on Monday.

Advertisement
The British government's chief medical officer Sally Davies told ITV television that there would be a review of procedures even though Cafferkey "had no symptoms" at Heathrow.

"Her temperature was within the acceptable range," she said.

Advertisement
A doctor who traveled back to London with Cafferkey had complained of "shambolic" screening procedures in Britain.

Source-AFP


Advertisement