Ebola nurse’s condition improved to ‘serious but stable’

Anton McNulty

THE family of a Scottish nurse who contracted the deadly Ebola virus received some good news after the hospital where she is being treated reported an improvement in her condition.
Pauline Cafferkey was readmitted to the specialist isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London after tests showed the the infection was still present in her system.
Last week her condition was described as critical but there has been an improvement in her heath which is now being described as ‘serious but stable’.
In an update issued yesterday (Monday) afternoon, the hospital said: “We are able to announce that Pauline Cafferkey’s condition has improved to serious but stable.”
The 39-year-old public health nurse from Glasgow contracted Ebola last December when she was working at a treatment centre in Sierra Leone. She spent a month in isolation in the Royal Free when she arrived back to the UK before being discharged after apparently making a full recovery.
Ms Cafferkey’s late grandfather, Anthony Cafferkey, was a native of Bunnacurry, Achill, before emigrating to Scotland in his teenage years.
She returned to work as a public health nurse at Blantyre Health Centre near Glasgow but fell ill earlier this month and was admitted for treatment in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
Her family were critical of the care she received after initially becoming ill saying doctors had ‘missed a big opportunity’ to spot she had fallen ill with Ebola again. It emerged that she had been sent home by an out-of-hours doctor who saw her earlier that week.
It is understood bodily tissues can harbour the Ebola infection months after the person appears to have fully recovered. A total of 58 close contacts of Ms Cafferkey have been identified, with 40 of those offered vaccinations as a precaution.

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