A British nurse who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone was in
a “critical” condition Sunday, locked in isolation inside a
specialist London hospital.
Pauline Cafferkey’s health has taken a turn for the worse in
recent days, the Royal Free Hospital said in a statement.
“The condition of Pauline Cafferkey has gradually
deteriorated over the past two days and is now critical,” the
Royal Free Hospital in London said in a statement.
On Wednesday, doctors had said the 39-year-old Scot was
sitting up in bed, reading and talking to staff from inside her
isolation tent in the hospital.
They said Cafferkey, who was working with the charity Save
the Children in Sierra Leone, had agreed to have blood
plasma treatment and take an experimental anti-viral drug.
However, they were not able to give her ZMapp, the drug
used to cure fellow British volunteer nurse William Pooley,
because global supplies had run out.
The plasma was taken from the blood of a patient
successfully treated in Europe, in the hope that the
antibodies it contained would help her fight the virus.
Doctor Michael Jacobs, infectious diseases consultant at
the Royal Free, warned at the time that “Ebola runs a very
variable course and the next few days are going to be very
critical.
“Things may get worse,” he warned.
Cafferkey, who works for the National Health Service in
Scotland, was volunteering at a British-built treatment centre
in Kerry Town, not far from Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown,
when she contracted the deadly virus.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Twitter: “My
thoughts and prayers are with nurse Pauline Cafferkey who
is in a critical condition with Ebola.”
Expert microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington said
Cafferkey would need luck to survive the deadly virus, which
experts still do not fully understand.
“The plasma is probably her best chance of treatment,” he
said.
- Volunteer nurse’s courage praised -
Cafferkey is the second person to be treated for Ebola in
Britain after Pooley, who recovered and has since returned
to Sierra Leone.
She was diagnosed in Glasgow on December 29 after flying
home, and was transferred to the Royal Free, which has the
only isolation ward in Britain equipped for Ebola patients.
Meanwhile in Swindon, southwest England, a person with a
history of travel to west Africa was being tested for Ebola as
a precautionary measure after being admitted to hospital.
Around 100 people have been tested for Ebola in hospitals
across England during the current outbreak, with all of them
testing negative so far apart from Cafferkey.
Ebola has killed 7,890 people in the past year, out of 20,171
cases, according to the latest tally by the World Health
Organization.
Almost all the deaths and cases have been recorded in the
three west African countries worst hit by the outbreak:
Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Ebola can fell its victims within days, causing severe fever
and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea. In
severe cases it shuts down organs and causes unstoppable
bleeding.
The virus is spread through direct contact with the bodily
fluids of an infected person, meaning people caring for the
sick are particularly exposed.
As of December 28 — not counting Cafferkey — a total of
678 healthcare workers were known to have contracted the
virus, of which 382 had died.
Doctor Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of
Nursing trade union, said Cafferkey had shown “incredible
courage” in volunteering.
“The efforts of frontline healthcare workers like Pauline
have been essential for containing the spread of Ebola, even
though it means they themselves face considerable risks,”
he said.
“Their bravery and their compassion is inspirational.”
Source: Vanguard
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