MOSCOW, January 16 (Sputnik) — A suspected deadly Ebolavirus fever patient has been hospitalized in Scotland's capital Edinburgh after returning from West Africa, the Evening Edinburgh News reported Thursday.
According to the newspaper, the patient, who has recently suffered from a high temperature after returning from a country with an outbreak of the deadly virus, was placed in the Western General Hospital's infectious diseases unit over fears of highly possible case of Ebola infection.
"As a precautionary measure, and in line with agreed procedures, the patient will be screened for possible infections and will be kept in isolation. We have robust systems in place to manage patients with suspected infectious diseases and follow agreed and tested national guidelines," the paper has quoted Melanie Johnson, director of unscheduled care at NHS Lothian, as saying.
In late December 2014, a Scottish nurse, Pauline Cafferkey, who had been working with the Save the Children charity in Sierra Leone, tested positive for the Ebola virus after returning from West Africa to her home in Glasgow.
The 39-year-old nurse arrived in Glasgow from Sierra Leone on December 28, admitted to Gartnavel Hospital the following morning and was transferred to London's Royal Free Hospital the next day, where she was placed in a specially created high level isolation unit.
Cafferkey's treatment includes receiving an experimental antiviral drug along with a blood transfusion from patients cured of Ebola.
The current Ebola epidemic in West Africa broke out in Guinea in December 2013, soon spreading to neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone. The outbreak has claimed the lives of almost 8,000 people, according to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) estimates.
Several foreign healthcare workers who have travelled to the Ebola-stricken countries to help battle the outbreak have been infected with the deadly virus.
