Britain airlifts Ebola-infected UK aid worker out of DR Congo

A British healthcare worker who caught Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is being flown home for specialist treatment, according to an official document seen by Reuters. The patient is in stable condition and is expected to reach Britain on Wednesday or Thursday, then be moved by specialist ambulance to a high-consequence infectious disease unit.

British authorities told Reuters they do not expect the case to have a serious public health impact in Britain, and anticipated no disruption to international travel or trade. “A British citizen currently in the DRC has tested positive for Ebola,” a UK government spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters. “The risk to the UK public from Ebola remains low.”

The worker, whose identity has not been disclosed, had been sent to DR Congo by a humanitarian organisation to help support the outbreak response. It marks the first case involving a British national tied to the current outbreak, though several other people from elsewhere in Europe have been infected. Switzerland evacuated an Ebola patient from Nigeria last month, and France reported its first confirmed case in June — a doctor returning from a humanitarian mission in DR Congo.

Ebola is a severe viral disease spread through direct contact with an infected person's body fluids. The World Health Organization puts the average fatality rate at roughly half of cases, though it varies between outbreaks.

UK health authorities say the risk to the wider public from imported Ebola cases stays low, and the National Health Service has procedures in place to handle suspected and confirmed infections. Imported cases are rare — only four have been confirmed in Britain since 1976, according to the UK Health Security Agency.

The outbreak in DR Congo is the second-largest ever recorded, with more than 10,000 confirmed cases and nearly 5,000 deaths reported by late October.