- A British healthcare worker who contracted Ebola while responding to an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has arrived back in the UK for specialist medical treatment.
- The patient was transported from RAF Northolt to a high-level isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, which uses dedicated NHS staff and controlled ventilation tents to ensure safe care.
- This case marks the first British national infected during the current outbreak in the DRC, which is caused by the Bundibugyo virus and has recorded over 10,000 cases and 5,000 deaths.
- It is only the fifth confirmed Ebola case in the UK since 1976, with three previous cases involving healthcare workers returning from the West African outbreak between 2014 and 2015.
- Infectious disease experts and government officials have emphasised that the risk to the UK public remains extremely low because Ebola is transmitted via bodily fluids rather than through the air.
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