Ebola scare at UK hospital as patient tested for disease
One patient was admitted to a hospital in Glasgow with suspected Ebola but tested negative.
They were taken to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital early on Tuesday for tests to determine whether they had the disease.
The test has since come back negative, according to the BBC.
A spokesperson for Public Health Scotland said there were currently “no confirmed cases” of Ebola in Scotland, but continued: “Public Health Scotland is working closely with the UKHSA to assess routes through which travelers from affected countries can enter the UK.
“People arriving in the UK from affected areas are at low risk and the NHS has safe procedures in place to detect and manage such cases.
“PHS and NHS boards across Scotland have well-established protocols for assessing and testing travelers arriving in the UK from Ebola-affected areas where necessary.
“Contact tracing will be carried out when necessary and contacts may be subject to clinical evaluation and precautionary testing.”
There are approximately 700 confirmed cases of bundibugyo Ebola virus, the majority of which are in the Democratic Republic of Congo following an outbreak last month.
About 138 people died, including two in neighboring Uganda.
The epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The UK has pledged up to £21 million to support the local response to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and help protect frontline workers and vulnerable communities.
Officials stressed that diseases “are not limited to borders” and that it is “vital” that the UK works with international partners to protect global health.
UK Public Health Rapid Support Team experts include seven experts from the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Four of them will be based in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to support World Health Organization (WHO) field operations, while one will join the WHO country office in the capital Kinshasa.
An epidemiologist will also be deployed to the Republic of Congo to support the wider response in the region.
Dr Edmund Newman, UKHSA UK Public Health Rapid Support Team Director, said: “This deployment will help strengthen the existing response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and across the region, with support from experts in epidemiology, risk communication and community engagement, infection prevention and control and data modelling.
“We know that infectious diseases are not limited to borders, so it is vital that we continue to work collaboratively with the World Health Organization and other international partners, as well as national and local response agencies, to protect global health security.”
The UK Public Health Rapid Support Team was developed during the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014/15.
