Scottish nurse who recovered from Ebola critically ill
LONDON — A nurse being treated for complications of a previous Ebola infection is now critically ill after her condition deteriorated, the hospital treating her said Wednesday.
Pauline Cafferkey, 39, was flown from Glasgow, Scotland, in a military aircraft early Friday to the isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital here.
"She is being treated for Ebola in the high-level isolation unit," hospital officials said in a statement.
She had started feeling ill earlier in the week and was treated at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow before being transferred. A total of 58 close contacts of the nurse — a mixture of health-care workers, friends, family and others in the community — have been identified with 40 of those offered vaccinations as a precaution.
Officials confirmed that 25 of them accepted the vaccine while 15 either declined or were unable to receive it because of existing medical conditions.
Cafferkey, who is from Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, in suburban Glasgow was diagnosed in December with Ebola after returning to Glasgow from Sierra Leone via London. She spent almost a month in an isolation unit at Royal Free Hospital before being discharged in late January.
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Scientists agree that bodily tissues can harbor an Ebola infection months after a patient appears to have fully recovered. Cafferkey's family have claimed doctors "missed a big opportunity" to spot she had fallen ill with Ebola again.
Toni Cafferkey said the way her sister had been treated was "absolutely diabolical." She said Pauline Cafferkey had gone late Oct. 5 to a general-practice after-hours clinic at Victoria Hospital in Glasgow, but the doctor who assessed her had diagnosed a virus and sent her home.
Pauline Cafferkey contracted Ebola while working as a nurse at the Save the Children treatment center in Kerry Town, Sierra Leone.
Ebola-infected U.K. nurse in critical condition
A report from the charity in February said she probably was infected as a result of using a visor to protect her face rather than goggles. She had been unable to use standard protective goggles because she could not get them to fit properly.
Pauline Cafferkey's temperature was tested seven times in December before she flew from London's Heathrow airport to Glasgow, and she had been cleared for travel.
She was placed in an isolation unit at Glasgow's Gartnavel Hospital after becoming feverish and was flown Dec. 30 to London. She then spent almost a month recovering.
On Sept. 28, she won an award at the Pride of Britain Awards and met the Samantha Cameron, the British prime minister's wife, the following day at Downing Street alongside other winners.
Michael Settle is The Herald's political editor, based in London.
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