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British Ebola nurse in critical condition, hospital says British Ebola nurse in critical condition, hospital says
(35 minutes later)
The condition of the British nurse diagnosed with Ebola has deteriorated and is now critical, the Royal Free hospital in north London says.The condition of the British nurse diagnosed with Ebola has deteriorated and is now critical, the Royal Free hospital in north London says.
Pauline Cafferkey, a Scottish public health nurse who had been volunteering in Sierra Leone, was diagnosed with the deadly virus after returning to Glasgow via Casablanca in Morocco.Pauline Cafferkey, a Scottish public health nurse who had been volunteering in Sierra Leone, was diagnosed with the deadly virus after returning to Glasgow via Casablanca in Morocco.
A brief statement on the hospital’s website said: “The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is sorry to announce that the condition of Pauline Cafferkey has gradually deteriorated over the past two days and is now critical.”A brief statement on the hospital’s website said: “The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is sorry to announce that the condition of Pauline Cafferkey has gradually deteriorated over the past two days and is now critical.”
It did not comment further. It did not comment further, but it is understood that the next 12 to 24 hours will be critical.
The worsening of Cafferkey’s condition comes despite being diagnosed early, being treated by some of the world’s foremost infectious-disease experts, and after receiving the plasma from an unidentified survivor of Ebola. The worsening of Cafferkey’s condition comes despite being diagnosed early and receiving treatment from some of the world’s foremost infectious-disease experts.
Cafferkey, 39, was admitted to a hospital in Glasgow on Monday morning after arriving at Heathrow airport from Sierra Leone the previous night. Cafferkey, 39, was admitted to a hospital in Glasgow on Monday morning after arriving at Heathrow airport the previous night.
She was one of 30 NHS volunteers who had gone to Freetown in November to work in the British-built Kerrytown Ebola treatment centre run by Save the Children. The change in condition comes just days after Cafferkey’s doctor said she was sitting up, eating, drinking and communicating with her family. But Dr Michael Jacobs warned at the time that she faced a critical few days while being treated with an experimental anti-viral drug which was “not proven to work”, along with a survivor’s plasma.
The hospital, where she has been treated in isolation since Tuesday, was unable to obtain ZMapp, the drug used to treat the now recovered British volunteer nurse William Pooley, because “there is none in the world at the moment”.
Jacobs said on New Year’s Day: “At the moment, we don’t know what the best treatment strategies are. That’s why we’re calling them experimental treatments.
“As we’ve explained to Pauline, we can’t be as confident as we would like. There’s obviously very good reason to believe it’s going to help her, otherwise we wouldn’t be using it at all, but we simply don’t have enough information to know that’s the case.”
The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said: “Our thoughts continue to be with Pauline Cafferkey and her family during this extremely distressing time. I would like to thank all of the health professionals involved in treating Pauline, as they continue to show tremendous dedication and expertise.”
Cafferkey, from Glasgow, was one of 30 NHS volunteers who had gone to Freetown in November to work in the British-built Kerrytown Ebola treatment centre run by Save the Children.
The healthcare worker had flown from Sierra Leone via Morocco to London on Sunday, where she was considered a high risk because of the nature of her work but showed no symptoms during screening and a temperature check at Heathrow airport.
But while waiting for a connecting flight to Glasgow she raised fears about her temperature and was tested a further six times in the space of 30 minutes.
Despite her concerns, she was given the all-clear and flew on to Scotland where, after taking a taxi home, she later developed a fever and raised the alarm. She was placed in isolation at a Glasgow hospital early on Monday, before being transferred to London on an RAF C-130 Hercules plane.
The government’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, said questions had been raised about the airport screening procedure for Ebola.
Cafferkey is the 20th patient to be treated for Ebola outside west Africa where the World Health Organisation (WHO) says the disease has infected more than 20,000 people and killed more than 7,900.
Symptoms of Ebola can include fever, bleeding, vomiting, diarrhoea and central nervous system damage. There is no vaccine or cure for the disease and patients receive supportive care, including aggressive rehydration, antibiotics and anti-malarials. Patients can lose up to 10 litres of fluid a day.
Those who have got to the critical stage can recover. Ian Crozier, a WHO doctor who contracted the virus in the same hospital as Pooley just weeks after he diagnosed the British nurse, was close to death before the disease changed its course.
Last month Pooley told how he had flown to the US to donate his plasma, which was packed full of antibodies to fight the virus. He told the Guardian that when he got to the US, Crozier was fighting for his life and was on life support and dialysis machines. He was not producing any “relevant antibodies” and the viral load was off the scale.
After receiving Pooley’s plasma, the viral load almost immediately started to drop, doctors had said.
However, Crozier was seriously ill and in hospital for 40 days before being discharged. He told the New York Times that he still has a long road to full recovery, with physiotherapy being necessary to rebuild his strength.